Maths Think Differently
Maths: Balance Understanding and Speed
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As a staff discuss the challenges of balancing speed of recall and the slow thinking often needed to build understanding in maths.
Plan – NumCo preparation (approximately 2 hours)
- Staff complete the Starting Line survey.
- NumCo considers.
- Feedback from the staff Start Line surveys
- Animation content, follow up discussion questions, action planning, and evaluation suggestions
- Useful links to research below
- Believe in the Power of Yet Poster (available in Irish)
- Maths Think Differently bookmarks (available in Irish)
- NumCo decides on the staff development focus.
N.B. NumCo’s can use all of these resources or just a small part of them, whichever best meets the needs of the school
Below are some interesting articles about learning maths facts.
Do – Staff discussion (approximately 45 minutes) and changes to classroom practise (4-6 weeks)
N.B. It may be easier to facilitate discussion if staff are divided into smaller groups where they feel more comfortable.
- NumCo guides the resource use and discussion.
- Identify small changes for individual classrooms.
Remember: Changes don’t have to be big to have an impact!
For example:
- Stop expecting pupils to always answer instantly;
- Keep praising slow understanding as much as speed of recall; and
- Start slow thinking challenges with time on consecutive days to continue work on the same problem.
N.B. Staff may agree to work together to stop, keep or start the same strategy across the whole school or key stage, or each teacher may choose strategies specific to their individual classroom.
Review: NumCo preparation (approximately 1 hour) and staff discussion (approximately 30 minutes)
- Staff complete the Impact Measure survey.
- NumCo plans feedback session.
- Staff discuss the impact of the changes and agree those to stop and those to keep.
- NumCo records the process and the impact measured.
N.B. Each NumCo will work at their own pace and every discussion will be unique to each staff group.