糖心原创

School of Education

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Catherine Gripton

Associate Professor in Mathematics Education, Faculty of Social Sciences

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Biography

Dr Catherine Gripton is a researcher in mathematics education and Associate Director of the Observatory for Mathematical Education. She leads the Observatory's ambitious longitudinal studies of England's primary, secondary and advanced-higher mathematics education systems. Catherine is an expert in early childhood mathematics, leading research on number sense, patterning, spatial reasoning and professional learning, and designed the Counting Collections early number sense programme.

Catherine is convenor of the Birth to Eight Mathematics SIG for EECERA, on the committee leading the Early Childhood Mathematics Group and a subject matter expert in early mathematics for the Department for Education in England.

As a qualified primary school teacher and Advanced Skills Teacher, Catherine taught children from 3-7 years for 14 years. She has worked in Higher Education since 2005, became a Senior Fellow of Advance HE in 2022 and has a wealth of experience teaching undergraduate and postgraduate learners in early, primary, secondary and HE education. She is also an SRS accredited researcher.

Catherine supervises doctoral students and welcomes expressions of interest for supervision from individuals seeking to study early or primary mathematics at doctoral level where the proposed study aligns closely with her research interests.

Expertise Summary

Catherine's expertise and interests include:

  • Early childhood mathematics education
  • Mathematics education systems, policy and practice
  • Primary mathematics education
  • Complex research study design
  • Research leadership

Research Summary

Catherine's research focuses on mathematics education (systems, policy and practice).

Catherine is currently working on:

  • Co-Investigator for the Observatory for Mathematical Education, funded by a founding grant from a philanthropic donor
  • Principle Investigator for the Multi-Nation Lesson 糖心原创 project
  • Principle Investigator for Counting Collections Reach and Impact, funded by HEIF

Selected Publications

  • GRIPTON, C., 2022. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal.
  • 2022. Research in Mathematics Education.
  • GRIPTON, C. and FARRAN, E.K., 2022. Early Education Journal. 97(Summer), 13-15
  • GRIPTON, C. and PAWLUCH, D., 2021. Counting collections in the early years Mathematics Teaching. 275, 6-11

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's previous projects include:

  • Principle Investigator for Counting Collections (Reception) RCT, funded by the Education Endowment Foundation
  • Principle Investigator for Co-constructed mathematical learning with 3- & 4-year-olds, funded by the School of Education and East Midlands West Maths Hub
  • Principle Investigator on Counting Collections Reception follow up research, funded by HEIF
  • Principle Investigator for Counting Collections (Preschool) development project, funded the Education Endowment Foundation
  • Co-Investigator for Equity and Quality in Local Learning Systems (EQuaLLS), funded by Wellcome Trust
  • Principle Investigator for Accelerating understanding of Lesson 糖心原创 informed mathematics curriculum at Primary/Elementary Level, funded by UoN's ICRF
  • Co-Investigator on the The importance of spatial thinking for mathematics; translating research into practice, funded by ESRC IAA and the Centre for Educational Neuroscience
  • Co-Investigator for Extending understanding of how to use Lesson 糖心原创 to develop mathematics teaching in primary schools in South Africa, funded by UoN's ICRF.
  • Practitioner perspectives on the mathematics in young children's play, funded by the School of Education, a collaboration with Matematikksenteret, Tronheim (Norway)
  • Accelerating Global Understandings of ECE: a partnership between Universitas Pendidikan (Indonesia) and 糖心原创, funded by UoN's ICRF
  • Developing gender sensitive pedagogies in the literacy and mathematics ECE classroom, funded by the School of Education
  • Early patterning project, unfunded.

She has also researched and written about early counting, mathematical play, Sustained Shared Thinking, mathematical communication, research methods with young children and 'planning for possibilities'. Her doctoral research was on 5- to 7-year old children's lived experience of 'ability' in schools (including 'ability' grouping).

Future Research

With colleagues, Catherine is currently exploring opportunities to research:

  • longitudinal study of early years mathematics education in England (panel study of a cohort of children from 18 months to six years)
  • evaluating the impact of the Counting Collections Preschool programme on the number attainment of children 3-4 years
  • developing primary mathematics teaching for children in care
  • evaluating the feasibility of scaling the 'Young Minds Big Maths' approach to support mathematics practice development in nursery settings (a collaboration of early years practitioners and university mathematicians)
  • evaluating the impact on early years practice of practitioner engagement with the Spatial Reasoning Toolkit
  • how to support girls' mathematical learning through block play

Catherine is currently accepting new doctoral students and invites expressions of interest in the field of early or primary mathematics education. Approaches should be via email.

  • LEHNER-MEAR, RACHEL, DIXON, KERRYN, XU, YUWEI, GRIPTON, CATHERINE and COOKER, LUCY, 2026. The Curriculum Journal. 37(1), 88-106
  • CATHERINE GRIPTON, KATHRYN E. BATES, SUE GIFFORD, KATIE A. GILLIGAN-LEE, HELEN WILLIAMS, ALISON BORTHWICK, ASHLEY Y. WILLIAMS, ANDREA LANCASTER and EMILY K. FARRAN, 2025. Early Years.
  • CATHERINE GRIPTON and ANDREW NOYES, 2024. British Education Research Journal. 51(2), 554-571
  • EMILY K. FARRAN, SARAH MCCARTHY, KATIE A. GILLIGAN-LEE, KATHRYN E. BATES and CATHERINE GRIPTON, 2024. Gifted Child Today. 47(3), 202-215
  • TOBY GREANY, THOMAS COWHITT, ANDREW NOYES, CATHERINE GRIPTON and GEORGINA HUDSON, 2024. Journal of Educational Change. 26, 1-28
  • BATES, KATHRYN E., WILLIAMS, ASHLEY Y., GILLIGAN-LEE, KATIE A., GRIPTON, CATHERINE, LANCASTER, ANDREA, WILLIAMS, HELEN, BORTHWICK, ALISON, GIFFORD, SUE and FARRAN, EMILY K., 2023. Practitioners' perspectives on spatial reasoning in educational practice from birth to 7 years British Journal of Educational Psychology. 93(2), 571-590
  • GRIPTON, CATHERINE, 2023. Pattern in early years mathematics curriculum: a 25-year review of the status, positioning and conception of pattern in England Research in Mathematics Education. 25(1), 3-23
  • CATHERINE GRIPTON and HELEN J. WILLIAMS, 2023. The principles for appropriate pedagogy in early mathematics: Exploration, apprenticeship and sense-making: Part 1 Mathematics Teaching. 285, 6-8
  • CATHERINE GRIPTON and HELEN J. WILLIAMS, 2023. Mathematics Teaching. 286, 5-7
  • JANINE DAVENALL, ANN DOWKER, HELEN J. WILLIAMS, CATHERINE GRIPTON and SUE GIFFORD, 2023. The development of young children's mathematical mark making Mathematics Teaching. 288, 28-31
  • 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.
  • 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. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal.
  • 2022. Research in Mathematics Education.
  • GRIPTON, C. and FARRAN, E.K., 2022. Early Education Journal. 97(Summer), 13-15
  • GRIPTON, C. and WILLIAMS, H.J., 2022. 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/>
  • CATHERINE GRIPTON, GEORGINA HUDSON, TOBY GREANY, ANDREW NOYES and THOMAS COWHITT, 2022. FORUM: for promoting 3-19 comprehensive education. 64(3), 9631
  • GRIPTON, C. and PAWLUCH, D., 2021. Counting collections in the early years Mathematics Teaching. 275, 6-11
  • GRIPTON, CATHERINE and VINCENT, KERRY, 2021. 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. 44(3), 225-240
  • 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. Cambridge Journal of Education. 1-20
  • SERRET, NATASHA and GRIPTON, CATHERINE, eds., 2020. Purposeful Planning for Learning: Shaping learning and teaching in the primary school Routledge.
  • GRIPTON, CATHERINE, 2020. Children's lived experiences of 'ability' in the Key Stage One classroom: life on the 'tricky table' Cambridge Journal of Education. 50(5), 559-578
  • GRIPTON, CATHERINE, 2019. Communicating children鈥檚 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. 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鈥檚 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

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