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Mathematics in Scottish Primary Schools should be taught as a fun and creative subject which forms a core for other subjects. Children should enjoy learning mathematics and to be able to connect with mathematics by understanding the links to why they need to learn it.

Scottish Executive (2010) believe that teachers have the responsibility to promote the development of numeracy. To do this teacher are advised to use active learning strategies and to make relevant links to other subjects.

Next year for my second year placement I am attending an international school in Switzerland and their main aim is active learning. I am excited to see exactly how they use active learning and their pedagogical approaches which make this so successful.

Throughout my academic reading, linking maths with other subjects seems to be a very prominent subject. Winter et al (2009) say that to improve mathematical competence in children, teachers need to help the children make the necessary connections between learning. Liebeck (1984) agrees that teachers must provide the children with suitable experiences to perform successful matching.

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I believe this picture sums up exactly what everyone is trying to say. It includes active teaching strategies which I have already mentioned. Also real world applications as I’ve said children need to be able to make these appropriate connections before being able to learn fully. Teacher facilitation and learning environment I believe to be closely linked themselves as the teacher, by using suitable methods, need to create a fun and flexible learning environment.

I think this video has some great ideas for active learning in mathematics through the use of sport although I do have some criticism. I think the use of worksheets is unnessecary, I think as soon as the worksheets come out the children will disengage as for some children their gym time is the only time they enjoy because they don’t have to write!

There is verbal, fun methods of assessment rather than using worksheets. As long as the children are participating fully and enjoying what they are doing then there shouldn’t be a need for worksheets at that time. Children will being to relate physical education with writing and worksheets which isn’t the case.

In the Scottish Primary Schools we aim to teach the curriculum using the guidelines to aid our teaching strategies.

As teachers we are aiming to teach mathematics in a fun, engaging and motivational way. We can do this by incorporating active learning into our lessons. By using active learning the children will be enthusiastic to learn as we are providing learning contexts that are relevant to their own interests. By using subjects/matters that the children are interested in we will enable ourselves to communicate mathematical understanding in a successful way.

This following video goes into a primary maths lesson to explore their learning techniques.

The children at this Primary School are “learning without knowing they’re learning”. The are learning through songs, dances and actions. They are learning through the associations made with their actions. They also create their own wrap linked to mathematics. Using the reinforcement methods of repetition and questioning the children are learning continuously but may not realise exactly to the extent of what they are learning.

We are encouraged to make maths intriguing. To issue children with a confident understanding of each concept yet to have the children being challenged by their questions.

The two main aspects of learning to look into are two understanding methods: relational and instrumental. Having a relational understanding of maths means that you have good, solid foundations that allow you to explore ideas further. On the other hand, instrumental understanding is when you don’t have a full understanding therefore struggle to make the appropriate connections where required.

To enable an appropriate competence in maths we need to consider the steps that you process to think mathematically. Below is the grid that we came up with during our “Intriguing Maths” Lecture.

Additional to our Mathematical Thinking Process we also added in a conjecture. This allows us to take a prediction of what we think the correct method would be and then after we have checked this for validity we can then reflect on our initial thinking.

Here is an example we worked through in class:

Teaching Mathematics to Children

Mathematics ~ Teaching, Understanding, Thinking