Catherine Gripton

Contact

• workRoom C82 Dearing Building
  Jubilee Campus
  Wollaton Road
  Nottingham
  NG8 1BB
  UK
• work0115 951 4513
• Catherine.Gripton@nottingham.ac.uk

Biography

Dr Catherine Gripton joined the University of Nottingham in August 2018 as an Assistant Professor in Primary Education. She supervises MA and PhD students and teaches on primary teacher education courses within the School of Education. She has worked in Higher Education since 2004 and gained professional recognition from Advance HE (formerly the Higher Education Academy) as a Senior Fellow in 2011.

Before and alongside working in Higher Education, Catherine was a teacher in four primary schools in Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire. She has been a class teacher for all year groups Nursery to Year 2 and became an Advanced Skills Teacher in May 2003 for early years and mathematics.

As well as being a member of ATM, BSRLM, EECERA, Early Education, AMET, MA and the Chartered College of Teaching, Catherine is a member of the Early Childhood Mathematics Group and joint MA/ATM primary and early years group. Catherine has worked extensively in mathematics professional development, undertaking external consultancy for regional maths hubs, teaching schools, research schools NCETM, DfE and educational suppliers.

Expertise Summary

Catherine's expertise and interests include:

• early years practice and pedagogy
• early childhood mathematics
• primary mathematics
• children's perspectives in education

Catherine's doctoral research explored 5-7 year old children's lived experiences of 'ability' in case study classrooms.

Research Summary

Catherine's main areas of research interest are children's perspectives in education and early childhood mathematics.

She is particularly interested in: early childhood mathematics (including early counting and patterning as well as children's perspectives).

Catherine is currently part of the research team for the UoN EQuaLLS project, researching quality and equity in primary mathematics professional development (funded by Wellcome), and impact accelerator research into spatial reasoning in early childhood mathematics (funded by ESRC through the University of Surrey).

Selected Publications

• GRIPTON, C., 2022. Developing mathematical patterning in ECE classrooms: Participatory research with teachers of 3-5 year olds European Early Childhood Education Research Journal.
• 2022. Pattern in early years mathematics curriculum: A 25-year review of the status, positioning and conception of pattern in England Research in Mathematics Education.
• GRIPTON, C. and WILLIAMS, H.J., 2022. The principles for appropriate pedagogy in early mathematics: Exploration, apprenticeship and sense-making The Chartered College of Teaching. Available at: <https://my.chartered.college/early-childhood-hub/the-principles-for-appropriate-pedagogy-in-early-mathematics-exploration-apprenticeship-and-sense-making/>
• GRIPTON, C. and FARRAN, E.K., 2022. Supporting spatial play in mathematics Early Education Journal. 97(Summer), 13-15

• View all publications

Catherine is a member of the Centre for Research in Mathematics Education. Her research supervision areas include:

• early childhood education
• children's perspectives on education
• early and primary mathematics education

She is particularly interested in supervising students engaging in participatory research with young children and research into aspects of early childhood mathematics education.

Past Research

Catherine has previously researched holistic learning in early childhood education including developing early communication and the 'planning for possibilities' approach. Her doctoral research focussed on children's lived experience of 'ability' in schools (including 'ability' grouping).

• GIFFORD, S., GRIPTON, C., WILLIAMS, H.J., LANCASTER, A., BATES, K.E., WILLIAMS, A.Y., GILLIGAN-LEE, K.A., BORTHWICK, A. and FARRAN, E.K., 2022. Spatial reasoning in early childhood
• GRIPTON, C., 2022. Putting it in perspective Primary Mathematics. 26(1), 15-19
• GRIPTON, C., 2022. Developing spatial reasoning across the curriculum Primary Mathematics. 26(1), 6-8
• FARRAN, E.K., BORTHWICK, A. and GRIPTON, C., 2022. Spatial reasoning and STEAM Primary Mathematics. 26(1), 24-25
• GRIPTON, C., 2022. Developing mathematical patterning in ECE classrooms: Participatory research with teachers of 3-5 year olds European Early Childhood Education Research Journal.
• 2022. Pattern in early years mathematics curriculum: A 25-year review of the status, positioning and conception of pattern in England Research in Mathematics Education.
• GRIPTON, C. and FARRAN, E.K., 2022. Supporting spatial play in mathematics Early Education Journal. 97(Summer), 13-15
• GRIPTON, C. and WILLIAMS, H.J., 2022. The principles for appropriate pedagogy in early mathematics: Exploration, apprenticeship and sense-making The Chartered College of Teaching. Available at: <https://my.chartered.college/early-childhood-hub/the-principles-for-appropriate-pedagogy-in-early-mathematics-exploration-apprenticeship-and-sense-making/>
• GRIPTON, C. and PAWLUCH, D., 2021. Counting collections in the early years Mathematics Teaching. 275, 6-11
• GRIPTON, C. and KNIGHT, R., 2020. Walking the talk: moving forwards with sustained shared thinking and dialogic teaching. Forum. 62(1), 31-40
• GRIPTON, CATHERINE, 2020. Children’s lived experiences of ‘ability’ in the Key Stage One classroom: life on the ‘tricky table’: Cambridge Journal of Education Cambridge Journal of Education. 1-20
• GRIPTON, CATHERINE and VINCENT, KERRY, 2020. Using small world toys for research: a method for gaining insight into children’s lived experiences of school International Journal of Research & Method in Education. 1-16
• SERRET, NATASHA and GRIPTON, CATHERINE, eds., 2020. Purposeful Planning for Learning: Shaping learning and teaching in the primary school Routledge.
• GRIPTON, CATHERINE, 2019. Communicating children’s perspectives. In: KENT, JULIE AND MORAN, MOIRA, ed., Communication for the Early Years: A holistic approach Routledge. 27-40
• GRIPTON, CATHERINE, 2019. Communicating through the environment. In: KENT, JULIE and MORAN, MOIRA, eds., Communication for the Early Years: A Holistic approach Routledge. 71-84
• GRIPTON, CATHERINE, CLAPHAM, ANDREW and WOODFORD, MATT, 2018. Hello from the Other Side: Teaching for Mastery and the Reception teacher In: Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics. 38. 1-6
• GRIPTON, CATHERINE, 2017. Planning for Endless Possibilities. In: WOODS, ANNIE, ed., Child-initiated Play and Learning: Planning for possibilities in the early years 2nd. David Fulton. 8-22
• GRIPTON, CATHERINE, 2016. Nurturing Involvement through Assessment and Planning for Possibilities. In: WOODS, ANNIE, ed., Examining Levels of Involvement in the Early Years: Engaging with children’s possibilities Routledge. 105-117
• GRIPTON, CATHERINE and HALL, VAL, 2016. Diverse Consumers. In: HAWKINS, CYNDY, ed., Rethinking Children as Consumers: The changing status of childhood and young adulthood Taylor & Francis. 11-29
• GRIPTON, CATHERINE, 2014. Playing with Thinking. In: WOODS, ANNIE, ed., The Characteristics of Effective Learning: Creating and capturing the possibilities in the Early Years Routledge. 71-86