Education

Maths education should focus on relationships not ‘catching up’, warn researchers

Post-lockdown disruption, two professors have stressed that rushing through content to stay on schedule will only compound learning losses.

<table>&NewLine;<tbody>&NewLine;<tr>&NewLine;<td width&equals;"600">&NewLine;<h3>While there may be pressure on teachers to make up for lost time&comma; they should focus on rebuilding classroom relationships&comma; avoid rushing through content missed during lockdown&comma; and preference a deep understanding of a few topics over a superficial understanding of many&comma; say maths education researchers in an upcoming paper&period;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Education leadership and wider school communities need to trust teachers’ professional judgement and support them in this&comma; the researchers say&period; There is also an opportunity for greater partnership between parents and teachers&comma; especially where parents have become more hands-on in their children’s education&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The paper&comma; led by Professor Peter Sullivan of Monash University and Professor Janette Bobis of the University of Sydney&comma; has been accepted for publication in the <em>Mathematics Education Research Journal&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While remote learning has its strengths&comma; and parents and teachers have done a great job in the circumstances&comma; students are likely to have lost <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;schoolnews&period;co&period;nz&sol;2015&sol;10&sol;developing-opportunities-at-school-with-a-view&sol;" title&equals;"opportunities" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">opportunities<&sol;a> to deeply engage with maths concepts&comma; the authors say&period; This places new pressures on teachers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Students may have fallen behind&comma; creating a temptation to cover a lot of ground quickly and focus on easy rules students can learn and follow&period; But this would be a grave mistake&comma; the researchers say&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Generally teachers are conscious that students should be talking at least as much as them if not more&comma; and that slowing the pace of teacher explanations is important&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;When face-to face schooling resumes&comma; there is a very real risk that teachers might seek to cover content quickly and do this by offering longer and faster explanations&comma;” the researchers warn&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This is unlikely to be productive and might even have negative effects on long term learning&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We might expect perceived pressures to &OpenCurlyQuote;cover all the content’ to be exacerbated when schools return&period; However&comma; speeding up will not help&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Approaches that emphasise understanding are likely to be better for learning than rules based approaches&period; It is preferable to engage students in thinking deeply about fewer topics over the rest of this year rather than superficially about many topics&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>During remote learning&comma; students may have had plenty of routine exercises&comma; but little in the way of solving harder problems for themselves&period; It is essential&comma; the researchers say&comma; that teachers continue to challenge students to think deeply about problems and understand what they are doing&comma; while providing support to avoid frustration&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While some students may have struggled to learn at home&comma; fallen behind&comma; and become unengaged&comma; others may have &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;become used to easy successes&semi; tasks that require extended thinking might seem confrontational&comma;” the authors say&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Teachers perhaps could lead discussions specifically intended to create awareness among students including how school and home learning are different&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Students will also need to reconnect with their teachers&comma; peers&comma; and school community&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It is possible that students missed their friends more than they did teachers&comma;” say the authors&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;and there will be a need to induct students again into the routines and expectations of classrooms&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>This common sense stance is supported by research that consistently links the quality of peer relationships and sense of belonging to school to academic achievement&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Parents will also play an important role&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It seems that many parents have taken their roles as home tutors seriously&comma;” note the authors&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Where parents spent time engaging with the ideas&comma; listening to their children&comma; encouraging effort&comma; this time will have been productive&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Parent engagement is associated with high levels of aspiration for children’s learning as well as learning outcomes&period; Finding ways to broaden the nature of home learning experiences will be an important challenge for some time&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We believe our advice is likely to align with most teachers’ professional judgements&comma; and we want to reassure them that this is the right approach&comma;” said Professor Sullivan&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h6>Source&colon; Peter Sullivan&comma; Janette Bobis et al&period; &lpar;2020&rpar;&period; &OpenCurlyQuote;Threats and Opportunities in Remote Learning of Mathematics&colon; Implication for the Return to the Classroom’&comma; <em>Mathematics Education Research Journal&period; <&sol;em>&lpar;in press&rpar;<&sol;h6>&NewLine;<&sol;td>&NewLine;<&sol;tr>&NewLine;<&sol;tbody>&NewLine;<&sol;table>&NewLine;

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