1. What is maths and why do we teach it?
Secondary mathematics PGCE session

2. If we were beginning RE teachers….(1)
…we would be asking:
What is RE and why do we teach it?

3. If we were beginning RE teachers….(2)
to be taught to be adherents of one particular faith group;
to learn about religion and its place in the world;
conflict between these two positions?
values subsumed within Citizenship?

4. If we were beginning history teachers….
learn critically to evaluate sources of information;
(in some cases) to be enculturated into world view of adults around them?

5. But we ARE beginning mathematics teachers…
Could take the need for mathematics for granted – eg. school measure of 5+ GCSEs A*-C now necessarily including mathematics:
BUT…
Mathematics has only actually been part of compulsory curriculum since ‘Payment by Results’,
Children DO ask the question, “What’s the point of this?”

6. What children think of mathematics (1)
Picker and Berry (2000 page 71) in an international study of 12/13 year olds asked the question:
“If you have a leaky tap or faucet, you need to hire a plumber; if you break your leg, you need the services of a doctor. List below all the reasons you can think of for which someone would need to hire a mathematician:”
PICKER, S. H., & BERRY, J. S. (2000). Investigating pupils' images of mathematicians. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 43(1), pp

7. What children think of mathematics (2)
“No one is so stupid as to hire a mathematician”
“I can only use a mathematician in the 8th grade just to put him in my bookbag and take him to the exam with me. ATÂT! – NOTHING ELSE!”
PICKER, S. H., & BERRY, J. S. (2000). Investigating pupils' images of mathematicians. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 43(1), pp

8. What children think of mathematics (3)
Task: draw a mathematician at work…
PICKER, S. H., & BERRY, J. S. (2000). Investigating pupils' images of mathematicians. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 43(1), pp

11. What children are SUPPOSED to think…
From the introduction to the revised National Curriculum for 2008 (QCA 2007 page 139):
“Mathematics equips pupils with uniquely powerful ways to describe, analyse and change the world.”
QCA (2007). Mathematics programme of study: key stage 3. London: HMSO.

12. Need for mathematics in the adult world:
Excerpt from Bramall and White (2000 page ix)
…and these are the people insisting that children learn their timestables!
BRAMALL, S., & WHITE, J., eds. (2000). Why learn maths? London: Institute of Education.

13. Task: in groups consider the following situation…
The school curriculum is going to be completely scrapped, and replaced from scratch with absolutely no assumptions as to what it might contain. Interested parties are invited to state, with justification, what should be included.
You are members of the mathematics working party. Your brief is to answer the questions:
What is mathematics?
Why should mathematics be taught in schools?

14. If you have time….
…consider the following questions:
What percentage of teaching time should mathematics take? If more than 10%, which curriculum areas do you suggest should be downgraded?
How does mathematics relate to other subjects in the curriculum? How can this be accommodated?

15. What is mathematics? A list of topics
“The spiritual home of complete articulation”
“The science of abstract structure”
“A language in which common numerical and geometrical elements in real situations can be translated, decontextualised, analysed, categorised and generalised, and then translated back into the original situation.”

16. Why teach mathematics? Part of a balanced curriculum
Needed in other subjects
Needed for employment (as filter and actually to do the job)
Needed in everyday life
General problem solving skills

17. For lower attainer / disaffected…
Mathematics is necessary;
Mathematics is relevant / useful;
Mathematics is fun.

18. Mathematics is necessary (1)
In every day life (eg. percentages)
In every day life (eg. percentages), and…
“Both men and women lacking numeracy skills, compared with those lacking literacy skills, were more likely in their early careers to have been out of the labour market.”
(Bynner and Parsons 1997 page 19)
BYNNER, J., & PARSONS, S. (1997). Does numeracy matter? Evidence from the National Child Development Study on the impact of poor numeracy on adult life. London: The Basic Skills Agency.

19. Mathematics is necessary (2)
As gate keeping qualification
As gate keeping qualification, but often demands of jobs have little to do with qualifications or entry tests (Riall and Burghes 2000)
RIALL, R., & BURGHES, D. (2000). Mathematical needs of young employees. Teaching Mathematics and Its Applications, 19(3), pp

20. Mathematics is useful and relevant
Pick up on youngsters interests – sport, music, shopping, etc. – as a focus for statistics work particularly;
Cross-curricular links, eg. budgeting alongside Citizenship (Tennant et al. 2006)
TENNANT, G. D., WRIGHT, P., BROWN, J., MARGUERITE, A., MORRIS, G., & NICHOLSON, J. (2006). Beyond the barchart: materials on the mathematics / citizenship interface (web page)

21. Mathematics is fun (1)
Major challenge for teachers of low attainers, particularly in KS4, is the ‘seven year gap’ (DES 1982): to find ways of going over the same material already covered many times before.
Games / puzzles / activities;
‘Think of a number…’ approach to algebra;
DES (1982). Mathematics Counts: report of the Committee of Inquiry into the teaching of mathematics in schools under the chairmanship of Dr W H Cockcroft. London: HMSO.

22. Mathematics is fun (2) 28 20
WATSON, A. (2006). Deep progress in maths. East Midlands ATM / MA branch meeting at the School of Education, University of Leicester. 17th June 2006.

23. Mathematics is fun (3) 44 27
WATSON, A. (2006). Deep progress in maths. East Midlands ATM / MA branch meeting at the School of Education, University of Leicester. 17th June 2006.

24. Mathematics is fun (4) Also: Last digit of ISBNs;
Think of a 3 digit number….;
Balance 6 dice on top of each other…..;
Many others….