mathsCORNER


Centres for Excellence in Maths choose their themes of activity


By a staff reporter


The 21 Centres for Excellence in Maths (CfEM) programme have now selected the themes of activity on which they will focus as part of the government-funded initiative. The CfEM programme is a national improvement programme aimed at delivering a step change in maths teaching up to Level 2 in post-16 settings, with a focus on 16-19 year olds. It is funded by the Department


for Education (DfE) which has chosen the Education and Training Foundation (ETF), the national workforce development body for the further education and training sector, to manage and lead this programme on its behalf. The ETF is working with a range of expert delivery partners and the 21 Centres to design new and improved teaching approaches, develop quality teaching resources, build teachers’ skills and spread best practice across the country


through maths networks. The CfEM programme will focus primarily on four themes of activity: an adapted mastery approach to mathematics, suitable for the post-16 sector; approaches to contextualisation which relate maths to real-world situations; motivating and engaging learners; the use of data and technology within mathematics education in the sector.


Each of the 21 Centres will focus on at least one of the above themes. They will form their own networks within their region to disseminate findings and resources to support these new and improved ways of teaching maths. Details of the Centres


for Excellence in Maths programme, the Centres and their themes are contained in the inTuition Maths Supplement which is free with this issue of inTuition.


For regular updates on the CfEM programme sign up to the monthly ETF CfEM newsletter on the website www. et-foundation.co.uk


FINITE IDEAS To engage students in deeper thought, a simple strategy I like to use is to get them to think about a number, rather than simply asking them: ‘Can you remember how to do such and such?’. This is best described by considering the type of question you might use as a warm-up. It really doesn’t matter what the topic or type of question is, they can almost always be improved to make the student think deeper through a subtle alteration to the way it’s asked.


Consider a basic warm-up question such as: “Find ½ plus ²/3. But consider changing it to: “½ plus ²/3 is greater than 1. Can you


” explain why?”


Think about what is different about asking the question this way. What skills are they now using? Note that you don’t actually need to be able to add fractions! Write down a series of question you might ask and have a go at changing or flipping them in this way. It gets easier with practice and enables much deeper thought, yet negligible preparation.


Paul Stych is a regional maths lead for the Education and Training Foundation covering the West Midlands and South West pstych@icloud.com


MATHS ESSENTIALS


FOCUSED ON SUCCESS By Emma Bell


At Grimsby Institute we have been working on a small-scale Education and Training Foundation (ETF) project over the past 18 months, learning, reflecting and refining the concept of mastery for maths in FE. One of the key elements of a


mastery approach to teaching and learning is the journey that the learners take through maths – starting with fundamental mathematical processes, then building on them and extending their knowledge. But, as a typical GCSE maths


resit student may have just 30 weeks of lessons per year, it became clear to us that embracing a mastery approach required us to create a more streamlined scheme of learning. We were able to identify


the topics that, on the whole, grade 4 students were competent with, but grade 3 students were not. We refined this scheme and now have our second iteration of the ‘Focused 15’. These are 15 interconnected


topics which vary in size and difficulty, but build over time to give a rounded, good level of mathematical understanding – not just for an exam, but for each individual student’s future. Over the course of the next year, we will be tweaking and refining this scheme further, taking into account more academic research and trials. Our Focused 15 are: Types of number; using numbers; simple probability; ratio; measures; rounding and approximation; perimeter, area and volume; proportion; simplify and solve; percentages; angle properties; representing data; solve and graph; averages and spread; transformations.


Emma Bell


is maths enhancement manager at Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education.


inTUITION ISSUE 37 • AUTUMN 2019 23


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