{"id":1106,"date":"2026-02-05T13:14:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T13:14:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/cmc\/?p=1106"},"modified":"2026-03-04T17:24:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T17:24:48","slug":"research-in-action-andrew-manches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/cmc\/2026\/02\/05\/research-in-action-andrew-manches\/","title":{"rendered":"Research in Action – Andrew Manches"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is the second post about our latest Research in Action podcasts on the Mr Barton Maths Podcast<\/a>. This pod features a Centre of Early Mathematics Learning (CEML) colleague Andrew Manches, from the University of Edinburgh and you can hear the episode here<\/a> or in your usual podcast app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this wide ranging discussion, Andrew talks about his work including how to translate research into practice, embodied learning and the use of technology in cognition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew writes: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my role as a Co-Investigator for Loughborough\u2019s Centre of Early Mathematics Learning\u00a0(CEML)\u00a0at Loughborough I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Craig Barton. You can listen to the pod \u202fhere<\/strong><\/a>. The interview was very relaxed, giving me the opportunity to share work as well as personal thoughts on the challenges of translating educational research into classroom practice, and the opportunities and risks of emerging technologies.

In our discussion about translating educational research into practice, I was able to draw on recent work critically reflecting on the tension between the depth and scale of translation. The former is often more familiar to academics -the opportunities to engage in depth with non-academic partners on projects, or to attend,\u00a0and\u00a0write for,\u00a0events\u00a0targeting practitioners. Here there has been much\u00a0effort, and much improvement in\u00a0academic \u2018knowledge-exchange\u2019,\u00a0although\u00a0the increasing volume and noise of information in the world makes this\u00a0increasingly\u00a0challenging.\u00a0Unfortunately, however, this work is often limited to already interested parties; it is harder to\u00a0scale\u00a0impact\u00a0to\u00a0the thousands of\u00a0educators and\u00a0children our work\u00a0seeks\u00a0to benefit. There are avenues \u2013\u00a0identifying\u00a0and\u00a0communicating with key stakeholders and gatekeepers \u2013 but what about when our research develops educational resources for children \u2013 how do we develop and scale these sustainably?

Here I was able to draw on several projects that have explored the potential to scale resources informed by underpinning research.\u00a0Generally, these\u00a0resources draw upon my research\u00a0field of \u2018embodied learning\u2019,\u00a0an emerging area in education drawing upon cognitive theories that our\u00a0embodied (body-based) interaction\u00a0shapes how we think. For an educational example,\u00a0how\u00a0a child\u00a0may conceptualise\u00a0\u2018addition\u2019\u00a0in terms of physically bringing two groups of objects together. One way we can explore\u00a0embodiment\u00a0is looking at the spontaneous gestures that\u00a0we\u00a0create when communicating\u00a0our\u00a0thinking.\u00a0For example, how young children use their hands when they lack the language. Or\u00a0how\u00a0adults naturally use gestures\u00a0when\u00a0explaining\u00a0ideas to children, although they may not be aware\u00a0they are doing so.\u00a0These gestures reveal much about how we think.\u00a0This is why on one project we created\u00a0a game\u00a0\u2013 STEM Charades<\/a> –\u00a0which\u00a0educators (and parents)\u00a0can play\u00a0with children\u00a0(with or without the\u00a0physical\u00a0resource) to reflect on how we use our hands to\u00a0represent\u00a0and explain\u00a0different ideas.\u00a0\u00a0

In other work, we have explored the potential of technology to provide new\u00a0interaction\u00a0experiences. This is not about artificial intelligence (although our group is exploring the impact and potential of AI for young children), but rather how we can\u00a0represent\u00a0ideas \u2013 such as numbers \u2013 in new ways through technology. As an example, we are creating a virtual number representation within a creative environment (Numbuko<\/a>) as part of CEML to enable young children\u00a0to\u00a0explore numerical relationships through colour.\u00a0We are also exploring how\u00a0Numbuko\u00a0could be physical \u2013 digitally augmented blocks\u00a0\u2013 allowing children to physically add groups of objects together and see the numerical changes through colour.\u00a0\u00a0

Trying to scale \u2018adoption\u2019 of educational resources is\u00a0challenging and\u00a0presents awkward questions to academics about the boundaries of their role. The government is encouraging social-minded (e.g., educational)\u00a0ventures from research \u2013 but do academics have the time, support,\u00a0or\u00a0motivation? While personally I lack time, my\u00a0previous\u00a0career as an infant teacher gives the motivation to try and find ways to scale resources \u2013 whether through\u00a0industry\u00a0partners\u00a0or directly through entrepreneurship. Importantly, I feel where academics do try to\u00a0develop or support the development of research-informed resources,\u00a0they have more\u00a0voice to critique\u00a0the many\u00a0proliferating\u00a0resources already out\u00a0there –\u00a0which as anyone attending an educational technology show recently will testify \u2013 is only set to accelerate.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’d love to know what you think, so please drop us a line or get in touch with Andrew if you’d like to know more about his work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can listen to the previous Research in Action series on Craig’s podcast page here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This blog post was edited by Chris Shore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the second post about our latest Research in Action podcasts on the Mr Barton Maths Podcast. This pod features a Centre of Early Mathematics Learning (CEML) colleague Andrew Manches, from the University of Edinburgh and you can hear the episode here or in your usual podcast app. In this wide ranging discussion, Andrew talks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":770,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"lboro_blog_alternative_thumbnail_image":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[218],"tags":[237,151,234,236],"class_list":["post-1106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-craig-barton","tag-mathematics-education","tag-podcast","tag-research-in-action"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/cmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/cmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/cmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/cmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/770"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/cmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1106"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/cmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1111,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/cmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1106\/revisions\/1111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/cmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/cmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/cmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}