This year, I have been privileged to support and collaborate with the broader Manaikalani community to enhance teacher practice in Maths. This included working with individual teachers, teaching teams across Y1-8, COL colleagues, school and Kahui Ako leaders, and the Maths Design Group. I also provided support for our RTLB colleagues.
Here is a snapshot of my AS COL support:
Describe the tools/measures/approaches you plan to use to get a more detailed and accurate profile of students’ learning in relation to that challenge. Justify why you chose these approaches and tools.
Recently, I had the opportunity to analyze PAT assessments from our school and discovered some concerning learning gaps among our students. Many students struggled with questions that were not covered in our classroom maths programmes or were only briefly covered (based on my personal, team and other teachers' reflections)
If students have never been exposed to specific maths concepts or skills, expecting them to answer questions on those topics is not fair. In fact, testing students on material they have not been taught is not only unfair, but it is also not an accurate reflection of their true understanding of the maths curriculum.
The PAT exams are designed to assess a student's understanding of the broader maths curriculum, but this does not mean that students should be expected to answer questions on topics not taught in class.
I used the 'individual items' report for all our classes and identified similarities in topics that most students struggled with: Statistics, Geometry, Measurements, Fractions and Algebra. Some examples are below:
Year 5:
On the other hand, I also analysed which areas of Maths we delivered effectively. This is just a great illustration of "what we taught - our students learnt!" We just need to review our maths programme and include the areas that we neglected before.
Year 4:
Year 5
A hypothesis I developed was that our current maths programme was not adequately covering all the topics included in the PAT assessments. To create a rich picture with a high degree of reliability and specificity, I plan to create an e-asttle test including all the areas tested in PATs. Gloss data also will be used to support Number knowledge and strategies results.
Along with these 3 tests, I will collect student voice. I already interviewed a few students after their PATs and discovered that many of them experienced frustration due to their lack of knowledge on certain topics. Formative assessment is ongoing.
Thinking of my 2023 inquiry focus. I observed my team’s new Y3 students and discovered that about 90% of this cohort is working below and well below their expected levels in mathematics. Their PATs confirmed the data I collected during formative assessments. I believe that this is a result of previous years of disrupted learning. The current Y3 students missed out on timely development of very crucial fundamental skills and knowledge as young students were very hard to reach and keep engaged during lockdowns and hybrid learning. When they returned to school, the main focus was on developing positive attitudes towards school and love of learning.
PAT Y3 2023 Term 1 data
This resource and others highlight five teaching practices associated with improving the quality of discourse in the classroom.
Five Teaching Practices for Improving the Quality of Discourse in Mathematics Classrooms
1) Talk moves that engage students in discourse,
2) The art of questioning,
3) Using student thinking to propel discussions,
4) Setting up a supportive environment, and
5) Orchestrating the discourse.
The research shows that problem-solving, reasoning and proof, communication, connections, and representation–can be seen in action in a discourse-rich mathematics community as students interact, question one another and convey their understanding.
Many educators and researchers think that classroom talk has the power to improve both students’ learning and ability to reason. Another benefit to
When the talk is used intensively in classes, students may get a richer sense of what words and phrases mean and of when to use them. Their control of complex grammar also improves, in speaking and in reading.
Over time, talk improves students’ social skills and ability to be patient and cooperative with others.
There are some limitations and it is not a "magic wand' that can solve all the problems; however, it is definitely a great tool that should be utilized in our classrooms.
I really enjoyed watching last Sunday’s Q + A, from TVNZ on Demand, https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/q-and-a/episodes/s2021-e11 as earlier this year I posed the same question for my own inquiry. Although I focus on developing critical thinking and cognitive engagement across the curriculum, my biggest focus this year is on Maths.
It was very interesting to listen to different points of view and confirm my own understanding of current problems in maths teaching in NZ. I think I am lucky enough because I have insight into different international educational systems as I came from the European part of Russia, and I'm also familiar with other European educational systems.
I truly believe that some NZ teachers don't have enough content knowledge in maths. Some of my colleagues don't feel comfortable teaching maths as they are not 'fluent' in it. Some classes don't have a structured programme because teachers don't really understand maths progressions and pedagogy. I observed lessons when students were asked to solve equations and they struggled to do so simply because the numbers were abstract to them, those students had to use material instead.
I agree with Prof Bobby Hunter who emphasised the importance of a balanced programme (direct instructions, practice and problem-solving (=create part). A few years ago, we went through a maths PLD that promoted problem-solving. It was very confusing as the kids had to solve problems using various strategies and we were supposed to discuss those strategies in a group. The explicit teaching and scaffolding were missing and I questioned that. However, that PLD introduced the Talk Moves that I implement in all subject areas.
Since that moment, I reflected on my previous international and NZ teaching and learning experiences, and decided to take the best parts that proved to be working well across all the subject areas:
Repeated measures/Pre-post design: Compare evidence and data collected before your intervention with evidence and data collected after your intervention. What has changed?
At the beginning of my intervention, I collected student voice about their literacy dispositions.
It was very interesting to see that in Term 1 my students had identified a strong need to focus on learning new vocabulary. However, I also noticed that many of them didn't like to spend more time and effort to understand texts and figure out new words. That showed a lack of motivation and engagement with the text and also a limited range of comprehension strategies.
In Term 4 my students showed more appreciation of text discussions and a deeper understanding of the information read in the text. They said that now they pay more attention to new vocabulary and most of them are willing to explore and use new words and phrases.
I believe that my students are also equipped with a range of comprehension strategies that I have explicitly taught this year. In fact, I've used a multiple strategy approach using direct explicit teaching, guided instructions, providing texts with multiple encounters of the same words in different contexts, story retelling, implementing drama, use of props and objects, comprehension and vocabulary discussions. I tried to embed vocabulary and comprehension work across the curriculum.
Quantitative data (Running Records):
The data showed that the vast majority of my Y2 and Y3 students have made a great shift in their reading and now achieving 'at or above' the expected levels.
My T4 'below and well below" students have also shown some progress, all of them have been also working with RTLB and other support programmes.
My target group has shown great progress in both Reading and Writing and all of the students are working at 'at' and 'above' the expected levels.
