The Parkside Federation Excellence Innovation Collaboration Problem-solving approaches to teaching and learning in Maths Fran Wilson.

The Parkside Federation Excellence Innovation Collaboration

Problem-solving approaches to teaching and learning in Maths

Fran Wilson


What does is mean to be good at Maths?


What does it mean to be good at Maths?• You can analyse problems

• You can interpret descriptions

• You can work out what you don’t understand

• You can see when different ways of showing something are related

Having these skills will mean that:• You see how things work in general• You are good at explaining what you think• You ask good questions


What it means to be good at Maths?

Which will mean that:• You can work out which method you should use• You can make links to real

life• You can work out a way to

improve

So that:• You can find a way to solve problems.


Parkside Federation

• Two schools in central Cambridge –Coleridge CC and Parkside CC

• Differing demographic of catchment

• Very different achievement levels in Maths Coleridge A*-C – 33%, Parkside A*-C – 75%(2005 cohort – first year of federation)

• Very different styles of organisation and teaching.


Parkside CC

• Mixed-ability classes

• Pupil-centred exploration

• Problem solving

• Discussion and groupwork

• Thinking Maths

• Three part lesson focusing on cognitive progress/ learning styles


Coleridge CC

• Classes set by ability

• Teacher-led instruction based teaching and learning

• Three-part lesson focusing on curriculum content

• Practice heavy activities


Ethos for Learning

• Students learn better from each other than from their teacher

• Students have the ability to solve problems if they are given the time to think about them

• Students need to be able to work out what to do independently to create their own scaffolding


Ethos for Learning

• Resolving conflict may require students to struggle

• Discussing methods is crucial to increasing understanding

• All students can benefit from the progress of some students

• Students can approach learning in different ways


Ethos for Group Work

• Teachers help students to develop group work strategies by allocating roles

• Students discuss how they’ve worked on their role in the plenary

• Students set targets in their group on how they will improve how they work together in the future


Group Roles

Each member of the group takes or is given one of the following roles:

• Organiser• Resource Manager• Inclusion• Understanding

The plenary is then used to discuss how the group worked together, which roles they did well and which they need to work on to improve.



For example – first problem of the topic



What happened?

• Realisation that you don’t have all the information that you need

• Identification of what information is needed

• Different strategies for working together

• Successful completion of some of the task

• Discussion of process


The answers!


Creating Activities

• Consolidation task – using skills already in place

• Functional skills tasks/ Rich tasks

• Exploration/ introduction to topic


Fraction Tasks


Questions to consider

• What maths do you think the students will need to achieve on this task?

• Which ‘type’ of task is this? How can you tell?

• What benefit would students get from working in a group on this task?


Creating Tasks

• Your group has a content based learning objective.

• Create an activity that would be suited to use in groups

• What type of activity is it?


The changes

• Students more open to working things out for themselves

• Developing confidence in solving problems

• Greater commitment to achievement

• More positive approach to maths lessons

• Higher aspirations and belief

• All SEN students included into lessons and on track for FFT estimates

• Better results!


Coleridge Results - GCSE

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

D-U 64% 71% 48% 44%

C 25% 20% 36% 30%

B 6% 8% 14% 11%

A*/A 6% 0% 2% 15%

2007 2008 2009 2010 EST


What do OFSTED think?• In the best lessons, ‘pupils were expected to work

productively in pairs or groups, discussing their learning, trying out new skills and exploring concepts’

• ‘In the most effective lessons, teachers often presented new topics by challenging pupils to apply their mathematics to solve problems, drawing ideas from them and using probing questions to gauge their initial understanding and develop it.’

• ‘Good teaching ensures that … important connections are forged, but the most effective teachers enable the pupils to make the links for themselves. ‘

Mathematics: understanding the score (OFSTED, 2008)


Plenary

• What have we learnt today?

• How did we learn it?

• How will it help us in the future?


Introducing to a new department

• What does is mean to be good at Maths?

• How to teach effectively using group roles?

• What activities can be used?

• Reflection and review


Effective Group Work

• Introduction of the group roles

• Use of discussion and plenary in lessons – centre’s development on students taking responsibility for learning

• Joint planning, teaching, observation and review of group lessons in department development time


More information?

• [email protected]

• Nrich May Issue

• The Elephant in the Classroom – Jo Boaler

The Parkside Federation Excellence Innovation Collaboration Problem-solving approaches to teaching and learning in Maths Fran Wilson.

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