Throughout Primary, Maths was definitely the subject I felt most confident it. However, I did feel that the time spent doing maths was limited. During P6, we decided to try mixing classes to do maths. Six other pupils in my class and I went through to Primary 7 and about 15 Primary 7s went through to my class. The children in the Primary 7 classroom were the children who enjoyed maths most and were also in the top sets. This definitely helped with my enjoyment of maths as I was in an environment where everyone else enjoyed maths. The primary 7 teacher was also very passionate about maths which I felt helped.
During work experience, I saw many teachers teaching maths in a variety of different ways with a variety of different ages and abilities. I noticed that the more enthusiastic the teacher was about maths, the more engaged and interested the children were. I volunteered weekly at my local primary school class, I noticed that some of the children who struggled with Maths were taken away by a fellow teacher for an hour to do some extra maths work. I went along with her one day and notice that they played games and she had a very active approach with them. The children enjoyed this and tried harder. During class activities which involved maths, the children in this group would often sit quietly and be less willing to answer questions compared to when they were in smaller groups.
I read an article in the guardian by Sally Weale where she speaks about following the teaching approach adopted in Shanghai. I disagree with this approach as it is about staying on one aspect of maths until every child has a full understanding. I feel that this would put a lot of pressure on the children who struggle in maths. They go into depth about the matter which although I feel is important, it can often cause confusion for the children who don’t fully understand the work. It could lead to the other children who do understand the work becoming bored as they wait on fellow students to understand the maths. I feel that using this approach occasionally would be beneficial as it may lead to children helping others to develop an understanding of the topic from a different perspective though I feel if this happened too often the children would become bored and less willing to help.
Reference
Weale, S. (2015) Shanghai teaching method ‘could improve UK results within four years’ Available at:http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/nov/26/shanghai-teaching-method-could-improve-uk-results-within-four-years (accessed: 21st January 2016)
That is a really interesting article, thanks for sharing! It is an interesting point because I do think it’s vital not to move on too quickly however I completely agree with your points. Perhaps approaching the same concept in a variety of ways could help address the boredom problem?
It’s also important to note (as the article does) that we cannot necessarily adopt teaching methods from other countries and expect the same results! Our children are very different to those in Shanghai!
Hi Jessica! Thank you for sharing this article from the guardian, it was a very interesting read! I had the same experience as you with maths at school; it was definitely one of my strongest subjects but I still feel anxious sometimes when thinking about teaching maths effectively. However, you have reminded me that simply by being enthusiastic pupils immediately become more engaged and eager to learn.
I agree with the point you made about the teaching method employed in Shanghai; it could be stressful for pupils who are struggling. However, it is interesting that this method is so successful. It seems from this article that the approach to maths in Shanghai is different from here in Scotland; particularly the focus on homework.
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