Numeracy: Using And Applying

To enrich the quality of children's learning it should be connected to their everyday life. This promotes social interactions and dialogue between the participants helping to extend their theories and develop their understanding. There are five themes that regularly occur while using and applying mathematical skills in practical situations: 'communication, reasoning, enquiry, representation and problem solving' (Fox and Surtees, 2010:31).

Mathematical processes should be used in situations that children can relate to, this way the children talk about experiences they have had (Bryant and Goswami, 2007) which puts mathematics on an accessible level. In my lesson about measurement vocabulary, I asked the lower ability group to find something in the play ground that is "shorter than. or longer than.". I purposefully planned this game in the playground so that it is linked to their everyday lives; next time they find something in the playground they can link it back to the mathematical vocabulary they used within the lesson. In this group there were emotional, social and behavioural difficulties; behaviour improves when mathematics is applied to realistic situations as the children are engaged with their learning and motivated in the task at hand so will be less likely to act out against the learning environment (Dewey 1938:62).

Using and applying mathematics links imperatively with Vygotskyian theory: It means that children can listen to ideas and talk to others within their zone of proximal development extending their own complex theories. (Blades, Cowie and Smith, 1998). In Appendix 2 I planned differentiated practical tasks for each table to work on as a group. In practical activities children think through and discuss problems. This helps children with using and applying skills as it enables them to reflect on their own thinking. Children engage in 'exploratory talk' whilst learning, where 'agreement is sort as a basis for joint progress' (Mercer 2000:98) and are more confident in answering questions after consolidating with partners. Throughout each lesson plan it can be seen that children were consistently asked to 'talk to the person next to them' (see Appendix 3). I noticed that there were less incorrect answers after 'talk partners' because the children get a chance to consider other points of view which might be more likely.

I have included group work requiring children to "help the police" by taking measurements to "find out who has broken into the classroom" (Appendix 1) because using and applying skills in realistic and life related contexts is the most effective strategy to teaching numeracy. This can be executed by setting 'practical tasks and group work' (Ofsted, 2011). I involved the police in this lesson because using work/career related contexts can help learners to know 'why' as well as 'how' to be independent in numeracy which can help 'achieve economic well-being' (DfES, 2004) later in life.

In the discussion at the end of my lesson (Appendix 1), different types of talk took place; members of each group had to explain to others what they had found out, this provided a situation where their new mathematical vocabulary could be used within a context. Next the children had to discuss what they thought the person might look like, there was no right or wrong answer to this question but scaffolding had been provided to point the children in the right direction. For example, the clothes they had each measured were small, so many conclusions were available; it could have been a doll, or a pixie, or a fairy that had broken into the classroom. This meant that the pupils could consider others perspectives and relate it to their own ideas (Alexander, 2008). It also created more of a sociable environment where discussions can naturally flow, which enhances the children's learning (Fontana 1995) and helps children identify their own errors. (Wood, 1998).

Throughout the activities I asked 'open questions' (Brown and Liebling, 2005: 161) and used the children's answers to help link them to the correct line of thinking. There were some situations where closed questions were necessary, especially for the lowest ability group and children with EAL whilst establishing the correct vocabulary (see Appendix 3). If I was to give these children an open question they would not have been able to understand the questioning or select the correct vocabulary. A theme across all of the lessons was that the children did not automatically know how to discuss or how to collaborate. They needed to be taught how to collaborate (Littleton and Mercer, 2007). This meant that the learning environment wasn't always reciprocal between the teacher and student as it was necessary for the teacher to interject and explain to the children how to talk to each other and work together.

References:

Alexander, R., 2008. Towards Dialogic Teaching: Rethinking Classroom Talk. 4th ed. Dialogos.

Brown, T and Liebling, H., 2005. The Really Useful Maths book: A guide to interactive teaching. Oxon: Routledge.

Bryant, P. Goswami, U., 2007. The Primary Review. children, their world, their education. Cambridge: University of Cambridge

Department for Education and Skills [DfES]. 2004. Every Child Matters: Change for Children. Nottingham: Crown Copyright.

Dewey, J. (1938) Experience and Education, New York: Collier Books

Fontana, D.,1995. Psychology for Teachers. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Fox, S. Surtees, L., 2010. Mathematics Across the Curriculum: Problem-Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy in Primary Schools. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.

Littleton, K. Mercer, N., 2007. Dialogue and the development of children's thinking: a sociocultural approach. Oxon: Routledge.

Mercer, N., 2000. Words and minds: how we use language to think together. Oxon: Routledge

Ofsted, 2011., Press release: Tackling the challenge of poor numeracy skills - why some teaching and learning adds up while other provision falls short. [online]. Available at: http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/news/tackling-challenge-of-poor-numeracy-skills-why-some-teaching-and-learning-adds-while-other-provision (Accessed 17th January 2012).

Wood, D., 1998. How children think and learn: the social contexts of cognitive development. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell