Aidan is senior maths teacher at the Institute of Education, where he has been teaching maths and applied maths for over 25 years. As the author of 12 major maths textbooks and a number of other booklets, he is acquainted with every detail of the maths course. He has also appeared on radio programmes on RTÉ and Newstalk to discuss topical issues involving maths and to give advice to students prior to exams.
He is regularly called upon by branches of the Irish Mathematics Teachers Associa- tion to give talks to teachers on aspects of the maths courses. In 2011, one of his applied maths students was awarded one of three gold medals for high achievers in the Leaving Cert applied maths exams. For over 20 years, Aidan was editor of Science Plus, the acclaimed monthly journal of maths and science. He is currently putting the finishing touches to a new series of text books, covering the new Project Maths course.
Aidan attributes the great success achieved by his students each year to a number of features of his teaching style. Firstly, the huge research he puts into investigating every conceivable question type pays dividends for his students. Also, he is always keen to stress the understand- ing of maths over rote learning, and is in an unusual position to facilitate this under- standing. But most of all, he values his ability to empathise with students, antici- pating and addressing their difficulties. All of this contributes to his reputation as an extremely clear and systematic teacher.
