Ero review report on Mathematics

It is important when inquiring into a curriculum area to look at what the literature and what has been happening in this curriculum area in other schools. I came across a review conducted by ERO titled: Teaching approaches and strategies that work KEEPING CHILDREN ENGAGED AND ACHIEVING IN MATHEMATICS published in 2018. 

The review was one of a series of reports on teaching strategies that work. It featured strategies and approaches which were observed in 40 primary school from across New Zealand. The schools came from a database of 129 schools with rolls of 200 or more where the proportion of students in the upper primary years had increased in their achievement. 

Raising achievement in primary schools: Accelerating Learning in Mathematics (ALiM) and Accelerating Literacy Learning (ALL) June 2014 This report shared how some primary schools were using the Ministry-funded support projects Accelerated Learning in Mathematics (ALiM) and Accelerated Learning in Literacy (ALL) to enhance learning and raise achievement. 

The report found that, in schools where teachers’ involvement in the ALiM and ALL projects had accelerated children’s progress, 

• students were active partners in designing their own learning plans; they were supported to monitor their own progress; they knew what they needed to learn next; and they were able to provide feedback about the teaching actions that worked for them. 
• parents and whänau were formally invited to be part of the process; they were involved in workshops to develop home activities and in frequent, regular, three-way conferencing in which teachers emphasised progress and success.
•  teachers knew they were expected to critique the effectiveness of their practice and to make changes; they had a willingness to seek both positive and negative evidence of progress; and they were open to new practices that make a difference.

The report discussed that, for schools to be effective in accelerating student progress, they needed:

• leadership capability 
• teacher capability 
• leaders and teachers with assessment and evaluative capability 
• leaders with the capability to develop relationships with students, parents, whänau, trustees, and other teaching professionals
• leaders and teachers with the capability to design and implement a curriculum that engaged students.

The report states that 'in schools where mathematics achievement was improving, and leaders knew the reasons for this improvement, teachers had usually participated in well-planned and targeted professional learning and development (PLD). Leaders had identified each teacher’s strengths and needs and then organised internally or externally facilitated PLD to respond specifically to those needs. They carefully selected teachers from within the school who could lead development work successfully with their colleagues to spread the agreed practices. They made time available for these selected leaders to increase their own knowledge and to work with others'. 

The above statement highlights the value in identifying staff members which strengths in the curriculum areas of focus. For example, the schools in the report identified teachers who had strengths in mathematics and gave them lead roles to implement good practice across their schools. 

Other valuable insights I took away from this report were the use of teaching practices which my own school have been implementing  throughout the years. These practices include: mixed ability grouping, using Talk Moves, teacher collaborative planning, problem solving approach and using Teaching as Inquiry. 

I reflected on how these teaching practices have been introduced, implemented and then the focus on continuing these practices slowly diminished as time passed. I also have noticed it is not highlighted to our new teaching staff as they begin their teaching in our school. Thus highlighting a break down in how we as teachers have a uniform understanding about practices in teaching mathematics. 

From this report, I will move on to discussing with our teachers what their mathematics programmes are and how they implement DMIC which is our current school wide mathematics focus.