By Liam Clarkson
Liam Clarkson completed a degree in Education Studies, followed by a PGCE in General Primary with Maths Specialism, both at the University of Cumbria.
Ever since primary school I have known that I wanted to be a teacher.
I have always had a passion for maths and the different aspects it involves. During secondary school, I had a great maths teacher who went on to teach me for A Level. Although I found A Level maths difficult (mainly the mechanics elements), I was motivated enough to keep trying.
On my teacher training I developed my interest in maths, writing assignments on topics such as factors of maths anxiety, ways of learning maths, maths resources and children’s achievement, and a dissertation on student engagement in primary maths.
What I learnt on placement
During my final teacher training placement I had more ownership of a class and got to know the children better. It was great to see the difference I was making when some children, who had started off being low or middle achievers, began to progress.
One of the things my placement taught me was that maths lessons which were more practical or involved games or activities were fun — both for me to teach and for the children to learn.
An example was when I was trying to develop the children’s understanding of multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1000. We all stood up, and I had some of the children act as the place value columns (thousands, hundreds, tens and units) and others act as the digits.
When I read out a calculation, such as 23 x 100, the children had to start in the correct columns to represent the number 23 and then move to show what happens when the number is multiplied by 100.
This was a more visual way of explaining and addressing the misconception of ‘just adding zeros’, and it also allowed me to have a laugh with the children! It involved the whole class and could be adjusted to suit the needs of everyone. It made maths fun and the rules memorable.
The main challenge I faced on placement was differentiation. On some topics, abilities can vary a lot and, if the tasks aren’t adapted to suit their needs, some children’s interest may be lost. For example, a high achieving child may be held back whilst the basics are still being taught to others.
One solution is to allow time for an intervention group if possible — to take either the low achievers or high achievers out of class whilst the majority are learning at the same pace. My interest in the Maths Mastery approach has also helped me with this.
What is Maths Mastery and how can it be used in schools?
I first became aware of Maths Mastery in seminars on my PGCE course. I then did some further reading myself and decided to give it a try.
Maths Mastery is an approach to teaching and learning whereby students gain a deep and secure understanding of a topic before progressing further. The approach has proved successful in countries such as China and Singapore, where it achieves great results, and it’s now becoming more prominent in schools across England.
According to this approach, there are several stages to learning a concept. First children should first grasp the basics of a maths concept, then begin activities to develop their understanding and reinforce what they have learnt (the varied fluency stage). An example of this could be different ways to represent a calculation.
The next step up are the reasoning and problem-solving stages. The reasoning part is about applying knowledge and logic to a question. The final problem-solving part involves being able to solve problems using all the knowledge and skills learned up to that point.
I am still unsure if I like this approach, however I have tried it out in lessons with my Year 4s. I found that, although the idea of Maths Mastery is that all the children learn together and do not move on until everyone has mastered a concept, the stages of mastery can also be used to support children of different abilities.
For example, the less able children might be working at the basics or varied fluency stages while the more able might be working at the problem-solving stage. Having said that, Maths Mastery is inclusive and aims to help all children achieve.
I really enjoyed my placement and cannot wait to start my NQT year in September. I’m looking forward to further developing my interests in maths and using these to overcome challenges.
