OVERVIEW THE TEACHING FOR MASTERY PROJECT
The Education and Training Foundation’s (ETF) Teaching for Mastery project investigated ways of helping learners pass a Level 2 maths qualification. It engaged tutors and learners working at different levels in both general further education colleges and offender learner settings. The four partner organisations were Sheffield Hallam University (working with Chesterfield College, The Sheffield College, HMP Wetherby and HMP New Hall); Grimsby Institute of Higher and Further Education; New City College in London and the Leeds project consortium (St Mary’s Menston). The trials have shown real benefits to participating learners and teachers. The benefits reported by those taking part in the pilots included:
• high levels of engagement and increased motivation; • a sense that learning had occurred both formally and informally;
• students learning from one another as they engaged in different activities;
• a tendency for lessons to be more creative. Teachers also reported positive impacts in terms of an
increased understanding of mastery approaches and confidence in using them. Practitioners also said they welcomed the opportunity to reflect on and develop their practice, and a sense of reinvigoration having seen the successes teaching with the approach can bring. All participating teachers plan to continue using mastery approaches. Imke Djouadj, the ETF’s head of maths and English, said: “It is vital that teachers have the opportunity to engage with mastery approaches and how to apply them in their settings. When they do, there can be benefits for teachers and students alike, as the results of this project demonstrate.” For more information watch these videos and read blogs from some teachers in the pilots. • Sally Drury, Chesterfield College
bit.ly/SallyDrury • Emma Bell, Grimsby Institute
bit.ly/EmmaBellvideo and read Emma’s blog at
bit.ly/EmmaBellblog
• Sarah Boodt, senior lecturer in Post 16 education, Sheffield Hallam University
bit.ly/SarahBoodt • Leeds Consortium
bit.ly/LeedsConsortium
CASE STUDY MASTERY IN ACTION AT NEW CITY COLLEGE
By Rachel McLeod The opportunity to participate in the Education and Training Foundation’s (ETF) Teaching for Mastery pilot came at an ideal time for New City College. We were in the middle of a merger of three institutions in East London. All three partners were rated good in their most recent Ofsted inspections, but in all cases achievement in GCSE maths remained a concern, with just 30 per cent of students gaining grades A*-C (now grade 9 to 4). We launched our mastery pilot In January 2018 and, with support from the ETF, we ran a conference for 20 staff from across the college group. This was a great opportunity to share our GCSE resit experiences, and to try out some mastery activities. The next stage comprised two main strands. First, planning delivery for particular trial groups and, second, the structures that needed to be in place in the college to support the changed delivery. We gave our trial groups a different scheme of work, with more emphasis on developing numerical skills, and on using concrete and pictorial resources to help make the connections between aspects of the curriculum that students might see as unrelated – for example, fractions, decimals, percentages, and ratios. We also included lots of examples of problem- solving questions and those that encourage reasoning skills. Support and ideas from the amazing ETF Regional Maths Lead and from the local maths hub helped us think about visualisation. The National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM) checklist of the characteristics of teaching for mastery was invaluable when thinking
about college structures. We introduced training for learning support assistants to give them an introduction to mastery approaches. It is too early to say how these changes will impact on learners, but the following points will guide and inform what we do next year. • There are no magic solutions. But small changes can give incremental gains.
• Support from senior leadership is essential as change always includes an element of risk.
• There are some fantastic materials out there already. • Find something good and put your effort into thinking about the sequencing around it and what it will look like for your learners.
• Variation really helps develop a concept. Use examples that change one thing.
• Bounce ideas off colleagues or a friendly ETF maths lead.
• Be explicit with learners from the start about something different and why.
• Make it clear that you value learners’ past experiences of learning maths and know that they do know a lot already.
• Don’t just work with the maths team. Lots of non-maths staff will be excited to be involved. In particular, brief the learning support staff.
Rachel McLeod is director of curriculum innovation at New City College which is a Corporate Partner of the Society for Education and Training.
Readers can watch Rachel’s YouTube video on the project here
bit.ly/ RachelMcLeod SET members logging in to read this supplement digitally can click on the play button above for a pop-up video of Rachel discussing the project.
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