Team Feedback on Collaboration and Its Impact on Raising Student Achievement in Maths

As part of the evaluation of my 2022 inquiry, I collected teacher voice asking them to reflect on our collaborative journey this year: 

Did collaborative planning help you deepen your MATHS curriculum knowledge and better understand progressions (stages)? 

- Yes, with having to plan all different stages it deepened my knowledge of the progressions as well as the curriculum. I was able to look at what my team had planned which allowed me to have access to more resources. Before we started collaboratively planning I noticed that I was planning too high for stages 2-3, now I understand the level that they are at and can see a big shift in their progress. 

- Definitely! I am an experienced teacher, who knows how to teach. However, as an overseas teacher, I struggled to understand the different stages and especially how to plan for each stage (and how to know when the students should move on to the next stage)....

Did team planning help you feel more comfortable and confident teaching Maths?

- Absolutely. Now I feel so much more confident teaching maths, I really enjoy it. It took me some time to get used to teaching off others' plans. But once we spoke about using the same template that helped a lot more. 

- The best thing about this whole experience was that I never felt judged, criticized or as a failed teacher. I loved that I could bounce ideas off from my colleagues, that I was able to ask for advice in a safe space and that I was mentored. 

Did using different maths manipulatives help you teach and your students learn Maths concepts better?

- Using different math manipulatives and hands-on activities gave my students more of an understanding of different concepts. I will never teach without manipulatives now. It also makes the students more engaged with their learning. I find that my students are actually excited to learn about maths now and really enjoy it! 

- Do you feel that you can scaffold your students' learning? What helped you achieve this?

- Yes, I feel like my students are able to get the correct teaching and guidance to improve in maths. As I have more content knowledge from the collaborative planning I am able to recognise my students' strengths and weaknesses and improve/ build on them. 

- Yes, it is incorporated in our plans. Instead of doing a massive lesson about a new concept, we break it up into smaller chunks and give them time to practice the new skill or concept. Once they are familiar and confident we move on to the next part/phase of the concept. 

What do you like about our collaborative planning and the changes that we made this year? What can be improved next year?

- We often reflect back on what worked well and what didn’t, which improved our planning and teaching (since we learn from our mistakes). Open communication in the team has been KEY (this is extremely important when planning and working together). I have learned so much from my two colleagues. Due to the fact that we have different teaching styles and different personalities, my own teaching practice has improved. I love that we are comfortable to ask each other for advice, that we can support each other and help each other grow. I honestly felt like we shared the load and that I was never alone... He waka eke noa.

- I think now that we have a solid template it will be great to look over these again and reflect on what works well and what doesn't.  Also reflecting and adding different activities to our choice board to keep this interesting. 

Enhancing Teacher Practice and Accelerating Student Learning in Mathematics (TAI 2022 presentation at Burst & Bubbles)

My 2022 inquiry started at the end of last year when I noticed more discrepancies in Maths achievement data in different classes compared to Reading and Writing results. What could I do to reduce variability in teaching maths and accelerate student learning? I came up with my inquiry question: “Will developing teacher collaboration improve teacher practice, increase student engagement and raise achievement in mathematics” 

During the profiling phase, I used student voice from different classes, formative and summative assessments, lesson observations and had professional conversations with teachers. I noticed that many teachers felt more comfortable teaching literacy than Mathematics.  I wanted to effectively support teachers to build their confidence in maths. I was hoping to employ teacher collaboration to design and deliver an effective maths programme across our year 3-4 classes.

Interestingly, team teaching during hybrid learning at the beginning of the year helped with my inquiry as provided multiple opportunities for my team to collaborate. We improved our professional relationships by developing team trust, establishing shared values and goals and setting up high expectations within our team.  Having open conversations about teaching maths helped me identify areas for improvement. We worked together to unpack the principles of effective pedagogy in Mathematics, develop solid subject knowledge and effectively use manipulatives, visuals and technology. 

Last year, my inquiry was about the implementation of High leverage practices in mathematics and I managed to accelerate my students’ learning despite the lockdowns. I was excited to share my expertise and passion for teaching maths with my team. I’ve been helping my colleagues with understanding various assessments, analysing maths data and using it for planning, selecting the best resources to teach different concepts, observing, giving feedback,  and modelling maths lessons. Collectively, we designed a new team planning format to make sure that students in our classes were getting the same high-quality consistent programme delivered every day. Eventually, my team developed a habit of ongoing collective reflections on our practice constantly refining our programme and problem-solving. 

As a result of my team's commitment and productive collaboration, our students have been empowered through a structured, accessible and rewindable maths programme. We all noticed a great shift in student engagement and teacher confidence. Our students love maths and this resulted in their good progress which is evident from our assessment data.