A Critical Analysis of the National Numeracy Strategy.
The National Numeracy Strategy was implemented in September 1999, setting a target for 75% of all pupils reaching at least level four in mathematics by 2002. This essay will focus on the findings since the implementation of the strategy for both pupils and teachers. In order to do this I will examine the Numeracy Strategy Framework guidelines, which state how the teaching of mathematics should be carried out in primary education and evaluate some of the main criticisms since the implementation.
Since the implementation of the Numeracy Strategy, a maths lesson should occur on a daily basis in every class from reception to year six. According to the Framework of the Strategy, each lesson should last for about forty minutes in Key Stage 1 and fifty to sixty minutes in Key Stage 2. The lesson should consist of as much time as possible in direct teaching and questioning of the whole class. The focus for teaching should be high-quality direct teaching, rather than drill and practice lecturing, asking children questions and encouraging them to share their answers and methods with the whole class. Greater emphasis is placed on effective teaching by the teacher, rather than children learning by themselves from exercise books.
The Framework states that a typical lesson will consist of oral work and mental calculation with the whole class for the first five to ten minutes of the lesson. This is seen as a warm up to motivate the children to practice and sharpen mental and oral skills, in preparation for the main teaching activity. It is suggested that the teacher should maintain a brisk pace, providing varied oral and mental activities throughout each week. Teachers should ensure that each child can see the teacher easily and interruptions should be avoided, encouraging all pupils to participate in the discussion. Teachers should avoid running over time, in order to move on to the next stage of the lesson.
The next stage will last between thirty and forty minutes, where the exercise will include teaching input and pupil activities either as a whole class, in groups, pairs or individuals. The teacher should make clear to the class what they will learn, tell them what they are expected to do, how long it should take and what they need to prepare for the plenary session, which is the last stage of the lesson. G...
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...The main concerns seem to be that in order for the Strategy to be successful the standard of teaching needs to be highly effective. This involves the beliefs of teachers, which need to move away from the old traditional methods of teaching and promote as stimulating environment as possible for the pupils. There needs to be more emphasis on lower achievers so that they do not fall behind and parents need to be kept informed of their child’s progress in order to assist with their learning at home. Children that have particular difficulty in mathematics need to be assessed straight away, in order to plan future exercises that ensure that they do not fall behind.
It is also important that links are made between mathematics and other curriculum core subjects so that children are aware that mathematics is not an abstract subject but that it can and does in fact relate to the real world. This does not mean that the rest of the curriculum should be disrupted in order to teach mathematics but that simple links should be highlighted. If this is carried out successfully then the whole curriculum should be manageable and other subject areas should not suffer as critics have pointed out.
The following assignment shows the progress I have made throughout unit EDC141: The Numerate Educator. Included are results from the first and second round of the Mathematics Competency Test (MCT). Examples from assessment two, which, involved me to complete sample questions from the year nine NAPLAN. I was also required to complete a variety of ‘thinking time problems’ (TTP’s) and ‘what I know about’ (WIKA’s). These activities allowed me to build on my knowledge and assisted me to develop my mathematical skills. The Australian Curriculum has six areas of mathematics, which I used in many different learning activities throughout this study period (Commonwealth of Australia, 2009). These six areas will be covered and include number, algebra,
Prekindergarten instructional games and activities can be used to increase the students understanding of number invariance. Using dice games, rectangular arrays, and number puzzles would be an effective method of presenting subitizing to this grade level. In addition to visual pattern, these young students would benefit from auditory and kinesthetic patterns as well.
Van de Walle, J., , F., Karp, K. S., & Bay-Williams, J. M. (2010). Elementary and middle school mathematics, teaching developmentally. (Seventh ed.). New York, NY: Allyn & Bacon.
As an employee of County Community College, I teach an Adult Basic Skills Numeracy class. I originally started the academic year with 18 learners, but by April 2015 I had approximately 6 learners per session. Most learners are female, of Afro-Caribbean or African origin and aged between 20 and 50 years. It has been suggested that many learners see numeracy as a male domain (Cemen, 1987; Gutbezahl, 1995; Levine, 1995; Miller et al, 1994) and I have noticed that I teach predominantly female learners who are particularly shy and have low self esteem. They are also full of self doubt and lack confidence in their mathematical ability and some do not see numeracy as a useful subject when compared to literacy. To some it is just a means to an end and not something to learn for the sake of self-improvement.
Place value and the base ten number system are two extremely important areas in mathematics. Without an in-depth understanding of these areas students may struggle in later mathematics. Using an effective diagnostic assessment, such as the place value assessment interview, teachers are able to highlight students understanding and misconceptions. By highlighting these areas teachers can form a plan using the many effective tasks and resources available to build a more robust understanding. A one-on-one session with Joe, a Year 5 student, was conducted with the place value assessment interview. From the outlined areas of understanding and misconception a serious of six tutorial lessons were planned. The lessons were designed using
The ‘60s were the age of youth, as millions of children’s from post World War II became teenagers and rebelled against the conservative fifties. Denying civil rights to African-Americans and liberation to teenagers in previous decades and Vietnam War, created a vortexes which lead to massive rebellion against the status qua. Music of the 1960s was characteristic of the revolution that was going on during the decade. It was a time of rebellion and counter-culture in which the teenagers and college students were critical of government, business, religious institution and other various aspects of life. Era marked by civil rights movement, Vietnam War, environment of drug abuse and sexual freedom formed new music like: folk rock, soul and psychedelic rock. These genres starkly contrast the teen idol music of ‘50s pop mainstream. Writes John Covach; “World was exploding, and rock musicians were listening more closely than ever.”(Covach, 152) Such stark contrast in pop music directly relay to changing social culture in America, which further echo’s the relationship between music and culture.
Macmillan, A. (2009). Numeracy in early childhood: Shared contexts for teaching and learning. Melbourne, Victoria: Oxford.
The National Numeracy Strategy suggests that ‘the result must be numerate pupils who have enough confidence so that they can tackle mathematical problems easily without going to teachers or friends for immediate help. The term numeracy looks to reflect the ability to learn the mathematics with more focus on the skills to be achieved. Numeracy skill in our daily
King begins his speech by referencing important historical documents such as the Constitution of the United States and the Emancipation Proclamation. This is emphasized when he states, ”Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation...But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free”. Which shows how even though the Emancipation Proclamation freed the African Americans from slavery, they still are not free because of segregation. He then transitions to the injustice and suffering that the African Americans face. He makes this
Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is a valuable and memorable piece of rhetoric. King’s speech includes different types of claim such as fact, value, and policy. The structure of the speech is well-planned. The speech is supported with all three persuasive appeals: ethos, pathos, and logos. For example, Dr. King describes that “...the life of the Negro is still badly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chins of discrimination...the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land” (King). This creates pathos or an emotional appeal on the audience,...
Using literacy strategies in the mathematics classroom leads to successful students. “The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM, 1989) define mathematical literacy as an “individual's ability to explore, to conjecture, and to reason logically, as well as to use a variety of mathematical methods effectively to solve problems." Exploring, making conjectures, and being able to reason logically, all stem from the early roots of literacy. Authors Matthews and Rainer (2001) discusses how teachers have questioned the system of incorporating literacy with mathematics in the last couple of years. It started from the need to develop a specific framework, which combines both literacy and mathematics together. Research was conducted through
There are slow learners as well as a mixture of fast learners in every classroom. These should be taken into consider and activities should be planned accordingly so that slow learners will not left behind and fast learners will not be bored. There are students with learning difficulties which will affect the teaching learning process. These should be taken into consider and teachers need to avoid things happening which as an effect in the teaching learning process. Behavior such as disruptive and destructive shows similar characteristics. These behaviors need to be discussed with the parents and necessary actions need to be taken to create a good atmosphere in the class. Also teachers will be able to identify different cognitive levels and learning styles. Some students learn through audio, some need to see visually while some of them learn by writing. So as teachers we need to have all these learning styles in a lesson to fulfill each individual. Planning should be done accurately which helps in the teaching learning process. Teachers play a great role in handling different children in the classroom. To build up an effective teaching process, these facts need to be taken into consideration. Teachers could think of different ways that they can implement in the classroom in the process of teaching and learning. Group method is one of the main teaching
The prominence of numeracy is extremely evident in daily life and as teachers it is important to provide quality assistance to students with regards to the development of a child's numeracy skills. High-level numeracy ability does not exclusively signify an extensive view of complex mathematics, its meaning refers to using constructive mathematical ideas to “...make sense of the world.” (NSW Government, 2011). A high-level of numeracy is evident in our abilities to effectively draw upon mathematical ideas and critically evaluate it's use in real-life situations, such as finances, time management, building construction and food preparation, just to name a few (NSW Government, 2011). Effective teachings of numeracy in the 21st century has become a major topic of debate in recent years. The debate usually streams from parents desires for their child to succeed in school and not fall behind. Regardless of socio-economic background, parents want success for their children to prepare them for life in society and work (Groundwater-Smith, 2009). A student who only presents an extremely basic understanding of numeracy, such as small number counting and limited spatial and time awareness, is at risk of falling behind in the increasingly competitive and technologically focused job market of the 21st Century (Huetinck & Munshin, 2008). In the last decade, the Australian curriculum has witness an influx of new digital tools to assist mathematical teaching and learning. The common calculator, which is becoming increasing cheap and readily available, and its usage within the primary school curriculum is often put at the forefront of this debate (Groves, 1994). The argument against the usage of the calculator suggests that it makes students lazy ...
In a classroom, a teaching strategy is a generalized plan for a lesson which includes structure, instructional objectives and an outline of planned tactics, necessary to implement the strategies. Reece and Walker (2002) describe a teaching strategy as a combination of student activities supported by the use of appropriate resources to provide particular learning resources. It is that procedure by which new knowledge is fixed in the minds of students permanently. For this purpose, a teacher does extra activities in the class. These activities help the teacher to take shift from one strategy to another. A method of teaching on the other hand is directly related to the presentation of the lesson. The choice of the teaching method depe...
In the process of completing this coursework, I have realised that every teacher should be all-rounded and equipped with adequate skills of educating others as well as self-learning. As a future educator, we need make sure that our knowledge is always up-to-date and applicable in the process of teaching and learning from time to time. With these skills, we will be able to improvise and improve the lesson and therefore boost the competency of pupils in the process of learning. In the process of planning a lesson, I have changed my perception on lesson planning from the student’s desk to the teacher’s desk. I have taken the responsibility as a teacher to plan a whole 60-minutes lesson with my group members. This coursework has given me an opportunity