Researching the why...

 Why am I inquiring into maths this year?

Manaiakalani and school data (see previous blog post on why this is such an important area of focus for our school).

ERO: Keeping children engaged and achieving in mathematics (February 2018). In this report by ERO (Education Review Office, NZ), it is mentioned that PISA data shows that in high school, there is an "accelerated decline" in maths achievement (page 2). 

LOTS of research arguing that ability groupings is not the best way to teach maths. The group of children I am working with are working with me because they all show an understanding of their multiplication facts. Is this ability grouping?? I don't think it is as within this group which I see, there are still children at a wide range of abilities within maths. I am also only seeing this group for 1 hour a week, so they continue to go back to their own classes for the rest of the week's maths classes. I would be interested to know if anyone considers this to still be ability grouping.

Strategies to be implemented, according to the ERO report:

- Mixed ability grouping - the group I see have been selected for a particular purpose - to move them from having times tables knowledge to being able to apply this knowledge. Within the group, there is a range of students with differing levels of times tables knowledge so it is therefore still a mixed ability group.

- Use of Talk Moves (Revoicing, Repeating, Reasoning, Adding on, Waiting)

- "Engaging in authentic mathematics tasks" (p12)

- "Developing children's confidence to share their strategies and learning." (p12)

- The structure of learning that I am going to be following is similar to that used by a school mentioned in the ERO report (page 36). This is where students get an opportunity to use their prior knowledge, be modelled new learning and then a chance to apply knowledge.

- I found it interesting that in the ERO report (pg43), they talk about a case study class who use multi-ability groups however the class to begin with has children with "similar needs." When you look at our school and class data for the spread of maths needs and levels, it becomes clear that we may need to do things a little differently.

- Page 49: "Developing children's confidence to share their strategies and learning."
                    - Two Challenges: (1) Reluctance to share ideas  (2) Needed to slow down and think
                    - Intervention: Introducing Talk Moves, Introducing Visual Prompts ("What is the important                          information?", "What do you have to find out?", What operation / strategy are you going to                          use?) 

- Page 56: A poster to support maths problem solving:

Effective Pedagogy in Maths (Glenda Anthony & Margaret Walshaw)

- One suggestion they have is to give students "independent thinking time." This is something I have not yet explicitly included in my intervention but I think it is worth adding in. Their argument is that children need time to think the question over without their thoughts and ideas being confused or warped by those of others.

- Another suggestion is to build learning from mistakes that the children make. 

- They talk about "making connections." I think this is a valuable thing that I am incorporating into my intervention. The whole idea with how the lessons with these children are structured is to support them in making connections in maths.

Inquiry Causal Chain

 Here is my causal chain for this year's inquiry. This causal chain summarises how different elements of my inquiry connect up. It also supports me in staying true to what my inquiry is set out to do - move students from having a superficial understanding of maths concepts to having a deep and applied knowledge of maths concepts.

Next step: When I see my inquiry group next week, I will begin the lesson with getting students to spend 10 minutes on a times table grid. This will allow me to see if students have this times table knowledge. This is essential as there is no point in me trying to move students onto applying the knowledge if they don't even have the knowledge in the first place.

Inquiry Stocktake

 At our last inquiry meeting, we were tasked with doing an inquiry stocktake to see where we are up to in our inquiries. I found this really challenging. Having spent a lot of this year, figuring out a hypothesis, testing students and figuring out their profile of learning, I am still not feeling entirely clear about my pathway for the inquiry.

Part of the challenge I have is that I don't have the students in front of me to get regular observations of their learning patterns in maths. The idea is that for my inquiry I will be taking the children out for a separate learning programme once a week. Creating a causal chain in my next blog post will be highly beneficial to me so I can see a clear direction ahead. 

For now, here is my inquiry stocktake summary:

Kahui Ako Meeting: Looking at the Research Literature

 At our last Kāhui ako meeting, we looked into the research literature that we are using to support our inquiries. We collaborated in groups depending on what our inquiries were. I worked with Danni Stone and Clarelle Carruthers and we came up with the following:

Theme/ overarching topic or intervention type: Understanding student achievement and how to support maths progress for diverse groups of learners.

My formulating a hypothesis document

Literature we have looked at:

Basic Facts 

Nz students value in mathematics

The Education Hub - mathematics

Why fractions are hard!

Linchevski, L & Kutscher, B. (1998). Tell Me With Whom You’re Learning, and I’ll Tell You How Much You’ve Learned: Mixed-Ability Versus Same-Ability Grouping in Mathematics, Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, Vol. 29, No. 5, P533-554.

Further conversations with colleagues, school leaders

I have more of a need to focus on the children who aren’t applying their mult/div knowledge to solve problems.

How do I move children from knowing their times tables to applying their times tables?

Structure of Implemented Change

Here is my initial plan of a structure of implemented change.

Formulating a Hypothesis

This week in our Kāhui Ako meeting, we discussed formulation of hypotheses. I have chosen to summarise my hunches, as well as research that has supported these hunches and feedback from my Kāhui Ako colleagues. I believe that my hunches are still too broad and more work needs to be done to narrow down my focus to something which is going to be measurable. 

Initial Planning for Maths Group

 

Along with my colleague and inquiry partner, Clarelle Carruthers and Year 3 and 4 team leader, Angela Moala, we have created a group which I will take for maths once a week. 

Initial planning leans towards me teaching these students using a problem-based learning approach with these students where the maths is applied. From these workshops, the students will gain knowledge which they will then be able to take back to their class to support the rest of their class learning for the week.