Leadership Consultant Perry Rush, in his latest blog post notes the competing tensions in the Curriculum Refresh that speaks to an ideological arm wrestle.
This is perhaps no better emphasised than by examining the state of Mathematics achievement that has, since the advent of the Numeracy Project, been declining. In 2018, in NMSSA Mathematics, 81% of Year 4 pupils achieved ‘at’ or ‘above’ curriculum expectations while 45% of Year 8 pupils achieved ‘at’ or ‘above’.
As a teacher of the pilot numeracy project, a mother of children of the numeracy project and a facilitator working with new teachers I have witnessed these competing tensions. We have teachers coming through now who only remember their Numeracy project learning. While they can do 'strategy' with number they feel ill equipped to teach the full mathematics curriculum. An interesting comment from one teacher was that they fear teaching the students the complicated strategies they eventually learnt from the Numeracy project. My own children enjoy and do well at mathematics. They have had a world of experiences through out their life that gives them confidence in mathematics from birth, rich experiences in te ao Pakeha. Not all of our Maori students get these experiences.
It is interesting to observe that the version of the Numeracy project Poutama tau used in our kura Maori share similar experiences of which stages children struggle to move too.
Why is this happening?
Rush identifies that "A major problem at the heart of our decline in mathematics has been the prioritisation of strategy over knowledge, understanding over competence. The fallacy of this ideological approach is evident in data from the 2019 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS):
· only 30% of New Zealand 10-year-olds could calculate 6 x 312 (2nd to last in participant country ranking, international average 64%)
· only 26% could add 385 to 5876 (last, international average 63%)
· only 16% could choose the correct answer to 27 x 43 in a multiple choice question with four options (last, international average 52%). In other words, if participants had guessed the result would likely be 25%
Instead of creating flexible problem solvers, the teaching of multiple number strategies, before students have an adequate grasp of number knowledge and decimal place value, has left New Zealand students struggling to perform even the most basic number tasks. This has caused a loss of mathematical confidence, particularly in upper primary learners who struggle with the cognitive load of thinking across multiple strategies and are left with little capacity for higher-order problem-solving."
Are we expecting our students to understand complex abstract mathematics often without scaffolding them with concrete and language rich experiences? Concrete and language rich mathematics experiences build confidence, knowledge and understanding. Over time our students can transfer this to complex mathematics.
In te ao Maori concrete and language rich experiences are integral to being. Observing te taiao, looking for and noticing patterns and relationships, responding as a whanau, hapu and iwi. Is it time that we bring back concrete learning experiences in Mathematics and take the time to teach the language of this curriculum too?
To read more from Perry Rush click here
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