Will having Honours Maths in the Leaving Certificate make you a better Maths teacher in Primary school?

On the face of it - 'NO'!  Second Class and I will not, any time soon, be exploring this:

Solve the simultaneous equation:

 X + Y +  Z = 16

  5/2X + Y + 10Z = 40    

2X + 1/2Y + 4Z = 21

                                                      

           

On the other hand the ability to reason, think conceptually, problem solve, sequence, think in the abstract and apply rigorous proofs - well those skills will never go amiss in a classroom.

So maybe the answer is 'YES!'

Or maybe we are asking the wrong question.

If you are as old as I am and remember back to the introduction  of the 1999 curriculum and the amazing buzz created around Maths.  The professional development courses which accompanied the curriculum changes set us alight with ideas and we all returned to the classrooms as reformed Maths teachers. 

We didn't need Honours Leaving Certificate Maths to teach the new curriculum.  We needed time, willingness to change, leadership and professional development. 

And we needed it to be ongoing.

Out with the books!

In with the manipulatives!

But it didn't last.  Slowly we drifted back to the ways of old.

'Quiet please.  Take out your Maths books.'

(Groan from class)

So what can we do now?

Re-introduce the centrality of  continuous professional development.  If you are reading this you are a Twitter user and therefore regularly connecting with your world wide Personal Learning Network to develop new thinking and use old and new, tried and tested, crowd sourced Maths teaching strategies.  

The Department needs to get in on this - embrace the changes, encourage, share know how and generally show leadership.  And the great news is that crowd sourced Personal Learning Networks are free! 

We need an IT curriculum from the early years.  

Children should be taught in  a structured, hierarchical  In my school we introduced extra curricular IT and coding.  Parents lined up to explain that their child was already a computer genius.  But the truth is that most children are genius at gaming. They have a lot to learn.  Children who develop programming or coding skills develop Maths skills in tandem.  They also learn that failure means 'keep going' and  that requires perseverance and resilience - and all teachers know important those skills are especially when it comes to problem solving in Maths.

There is a cultural and familial context for Maths.  

Parents regularly come to me and ask,

 'How can we help with maths?'

They quite often and self consciously add that they weren't much good at Maths themselves or they hated it or they had a terrible teacher.  And I say 'Yeah!  Me too!'  And then I ask them questions such as:

Does your child set the table at home?  Do you pair off the knives and forks?  Count the plates?  Work out how long it will take to cook dinner and what else could be done in that time?

Do you play board games regularly?  Do you ensure that your child loses sometimes?  Yes, loses. 

Do you sent them upstairs with a list of things to bring down?

Take them to the supermarket and discuss the value, size, expense of an item?

Do they ever have to work out the change?  Do they know what change is? (I've discovered a lot of children more readily understand the concept of 'cash back'!)

I could go on forever.  Maths in the form of sequences, time, numbers, strategies, failure, is all around us.

But, quite often, parents really want to know

 'What book can I buy to improve his Maths?'

'Books are important, I reply, 'they are what you use for practice when you understand the concept.'

Give more time and resources to Maths in schools.

Fact: Up to 30% of Finnish students receive extra help with Maths in the early years. As an experienced teacher I can see how that works.  It's simply a matter of one teacher not being enough at times.  Not just in the explaining, support mode but also in assessment.  Getting down and dirty with Maths, using manipulatives and IT each and every day, differentiating teaching and learning must all be observed, conclusions must be drawn and action plans for improvement made. I frequently tell the story of the student who made it to fifth class, getting good results in Maths but had no understanding of base 10.  Could add, subtract, multiply and divide with aplomb but had no concept of tens and units.  It mattered.  Because when it came to adding and subtracting Time - where base 10 is not the default concept - she simply couldn't do it.  And since she was doing so well - on paper - no one noticed her lack of basic Maths' knowledge.

                                                             30% extra help = SUCCESS

Teachers need to plan for change too.

How often do we education professionals, working in the field of small children and adolescents  equate complete quiet in the classroom, books on the table, pencils in hand and look of puzzlement on faces with success in the classroom?
We shush the children into complete quietness, getting a glow of satisfaction when they are all doing their book when the maths classroom should be buzzing with activity and conversation.  

There is a time for quiet work with the books - when the learning is done.

The HOW TO of greater success in Maths is easy.  

Honours Maths imposed from the top?  Naw!

Let's have some Honourable Action from the bottom up!