School Lines It's not adding up What counts most: sticking with the “Project”, or confidently numerate children? Lester Flockton
feedback, feedforward, Feedup, feeddown lester.flockton@otago.ac.nz
Repeatedly the evidence from international surveys (TIMSS, PISA) and national surveys (NEMP, NMSSA) has been showing a pattern of decline or negligible improvement in mathematics performance by our nation’s children. A 2013 OECD report showed that New Zealand's ranking in maths had slipped from 12th to 23rd. between 2001 and 2012 (the Numeracy Project was implemented in 2000). Why is this? Are successive cohorts of our children becoming less and less able to learn than previous cohorts? Are our teachers becoming less and less competent to teach? A common sense answer to these simplistic questions is categorically no! So if it’s not the kids who are the problem, and it’s not the teachers, then what is it? But wait on. Before attempting to answer this important question we need to ask if we are willing to see the problem through a wide-angle lens, or are we content to settle with a narrow focus lens? Are we prepared to think and work outside of the square, or are we stuck inside it? Are we plain and simply at risk of being in submissive denial – a justificatory mindset resulting from the vast over investment of time, effort and resources in course attendances, staff meetings, Internet searching, downloading, photocopying, manufacturing learning plans and assembling activities, churning out assessment paperwork, deciphering the ever increasing hoopla of jargon, and so on. All of this has become the hugely disproportionate industry and cost of the Numeracy Project at the expense of so many other dimensions of teaching and learning across the curriculum that deserve a better deal. Unfortunately some have poured so much into this Project that they are unwilling to see past it. They don’t want to let it go. From time to time I have had occasion to meet up with maths gurus, including some who have been at the forefront of the Numeracy Project. I like to ask them why New Zealand's mathematics performance is trending down rather than up as a result of what is proving to be a multi-million dollar extravaganza. Without fail they trot out the same superficial argument: “It’s the teachers!” Yes, various studies do show that mathematics is not the forte of many primary teachers, but then again those same teachers may excel in other areas that are equally important, if not moreso. Of the reportedly $70 million plus already spent on the Numeracy Project, a large chunk was undoubtedly spent on teacher development – not to mention the vast and inestimable expenditure of teacher time. Yet outcomes continue to fail to impress. In June of this year the New Zealand Herald reported Education Minister Parata as saying that the math challenge in New Zealand would be addressed by “raising the quality of
teaching and ensuring that resources are shared” (whatever that might mean). A couple of years ago she told the Herald that National Standards would address the math problem, yet 5 years into the Standards and improvement has amounted to nothing more than a tiny upward creep, which could easily be negated by considerable measurement fragility. So let’s not take National Standards too seriously. In the same 5th June Herald article Dr Stoop of the Ministry of Education was reported as saying that there were multiple contributing factors to a decline in mathematics achievement, and attributing this to a single factor didn’t take into account other influences on student achievement. He added “It is possible that the way the Numeracy Project was applied may have varied between schools . . . ” Ah, that cursed variability thing again! Of course there will be variability because of the very
THE BIG WHEELS IN DISPLAY AND STORAGE
Contact us now for a FREE consultancy
0800 493 378 www.hydestor.co.nz
• Bespoke shelving for your library, office, sport & general needs • An extreme robust and lightweight system • Highly stable • Versatile for your storage needs • Storage that produces quiet movement with minimal effort
NO MORE PUSHING HEAVY SHELVES! LET THE WHEELS DO THE WORK!
way the Numeracy Project approach is designed and packaged. It’s ripe for it. It is one of the key underlying problems that is undermining improvement. I doubt that no matter how many more millions are poured into teacher education programmes, that this will solve the problem. So what could be done? First, be very clear that the Numeracy Project is not mandatory. You might have invested a mammoth amount of time and energy on it, but that is no justification for keeping a programme that is not doing it for so many kids and their teachers. Consider alternatives, and if an alternative programme is introduced, strenuously desist from the lolly mix approach of using bits and pieces from this programme and that programme. Second, have a few essential principles that any alternative maths programme must adhere to before it is adopted. For example, they might include the following: The programme has a clear, sequential learning structure that gives first priority to children incrementally learning and mastering a consistent and successful method (strategy) for performing number operations, supported by a strong underpinning of place value and facility with basic facts. The core strategy is taught to increasing complexity through successive stages of their learning. The exploration of alternative (multiple) strategies is reserved as extension learning for those who have comfortably mastered the core method. ■■ To ensure consistency across the school, all teachers base their teaching on a text-based programme that “spirals” learning, ensuring that children have plenty of practice to master each step before progressing to the next level of complexity. Moreover, what is learned is systematically revisited so that the learning doesn't fade. ■■
nt
Pr i
sic
Mu
al
isu oV
di
Au
The Final Piece In Your Licensing Puzzle
Entertainment ANNUAL SCHOOL LICENCE
Students only, rained out sports days, before & after school care, special treat.
PUBLIC SCREENING LICENCE
Members of the general public, fundraising. For details on fees contact roadshowppl@roadshow.co.nz or telephone (09) 820 8811
■■
The text-based programme is distinguished from a “textbook” programme, in that it allows teachers to support children’s learning in appropriate ways. It is designed and presented in a manner that it is largely “teacher proof ”, so that those teachers for whom mathematics is not a strength will be effectively supported by a readily comprehensible and illustrative text. The text-based programme will ensure consistency of content across all levels of the school, and will very significantly reduce the amount of time that many teachers currently spend on working out math programmes, hunting down and assembling resources. The school’s existing stock of mathematics materials will be largely sufficient for use with the text-based programme.
I would argue that the time has come when any further “fix it” attempts with the Numeracy Project should be discontinued, otherwise the problems will linger on – at the expense of developing a much wider base of confidently numerate children. There is much in the Numeracy Project that is theoretically sound, but soundness of theory in practice is what matters. Perhaps it's time for the Numeracy Project gurus to take a long holiday, and for the keys to be taken off any gate-holders in our schools. It's time for fresh thinking! NEMP: National Education Monitoring Project NMSSA: National Monitoring Study of Student Achievement PISA: Programme for International Student Achievement TIMSS: Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study
Preferred choice of many District Councils, Ministry of Education, Kindergarten Associations, Playcentre Associations and Preschool Centres
MARKET LEADER
QUALITY ASSURED
Cushionfall is the market leader in softfall performance.
Our quality assurance has rigid control guidelines to
Less than 28% of wood waste received is suitable for
minimise skin punctures. We provide a designated yard
Cushionfall manufacture. All waste wood predisposed
area to eliminate any possibility of contamination.
to splintering is excluded. The public demand a safe environment for their children at school.
CONTINUAL PRODUCT TESTING (more than 50 tests in all) ensures a manufacturing process with quality
Since the original introduction of Cushionfall in 1997,
assurance. This has produced a safety performance
continual improvement of our quality control and
history for more than 10 years.
manufacturing methods has seen Cushionfall achieve HIC tests in the low 400’s.
41A Hunua Road, Papakura, Auckland 2110 Phone: (09) 299 3999 Fax: (09) 298 2988
www.reharvest.co.nz
REHARVESTED
TIMBER PRODUCTS LTD Natural Wood Fibre Product Specialists