mathsCORNER
Maths Centres of Excellence will be a plus for 21 FE colleges
By Staff Reporters
Work has begun on establishing Maths Centres of Excellence at 21 further education colleges. The centres are part of a £40 million government programme to improve the quality of maths provision for over 16s, many of whom will be resitting GCSE maths. Centres will help to support teachers and trainers delivering maths by developing new and improved teaching resources, and by sharing good practice. The successful bidders, announced in September, will work in regional partnerships, allowing the centres to draw on the widest possible range of expertise. Andrew Kaye, deputy principal
at Fareham College, one of the 21 host colleges, said: “The Fareham College Centre for Excellence will comprise a range of stakeholders including very good colleges and schools in the region.” Three areas of work will underpin Fareham’s work on the centre of excellence: adapting a mastery approach
to students with low attainment in maths; contextualisation of maths to vocational learning, and motivating students. The 21 colleges are: Cambridge Regional College; Christ the King Sixth Form College; City College Plymouth; East Kent College; Fareham College; Gateshead College; Greater Brighton Metropolitan College; Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education; Harlow College; Lakes College West Cumbria; Leeds City College; Leicester College; Leyton Sixth Form College; Nelson and Colne College; New College Stamford; Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group; Newham College of Further Education; Tameside College; Warwickshire College Group; Weston College of Further and Higher Education; Wilberforce College. For more support on teaching maths (and English) visit the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) website.
FINITE IDEAS It is important for all learners to remember three important rules when learning maths. 1. It’s not just about completing a task – it’s about understanding the mathematics. 2. We work together and explain what we are doing. 3. We are prepared to say that we don’t understand! One way I set up this activity is to give the learners a past question (setting the scene) and ask them, in pairs, to discuss the scene and think about other combinations the question could have. They are presented with cards to match and take turns to do this. For example, they might have a factorised algebra card to match with an expanded card: 2(a+6a) would match with 2a+12a. For each match the first person must explain why they’re placing it there and the second must agree/disagree/ask for further explanation. The tutor challenges the pairs, asking questions such as “so are you saying….” and “what would happen if…?” This can lead to a full group discussion.
Danielle Watts is head of maths and English (16-18) at Barking and Dagenham College. Danielle is a Member of SET.
MATHS ESSENTIALS
CHALLENGE YOUR STUDENTS By Steve Pardoe
American high school maths teacher and blogger Dan Meyer suggests that learners lack initiative and perseverance when it comes to solving maths problems, and simply want to be ‘told the formula’ – an issue that he blames partly on maths text books. Take a look at this question:
A water tank is in the form of a regular octagonal prism. The base octagon has a side length of 11.9cm. The lateral edge of the water tank is 36cm. a) What is the surface area of the base?
b) What is the volume of the water tank?
c) If you pour water into the tank at a rate of 50ml/sec., how long will it take you to fill it? The question presents all the information needed to solve the problem and breaks the question down into three manageable sub-steps.
But how often does this happen
in real life? In Meyer’s view this removes the challenge from the learners, and the question becomes simply one of computation. Instead, Meyer advocates learners building the problem themselves based on as short a question as possible. In this case: How long will it take to fill the tank? Learners discuss the problem and decide what matters to find the solution. They are encouraged to make estimates and ask questions to get the information they need. This grounds the problem in the learners’ own experience of the world, increases engagement and helps level the playing field for weaker maths learners. For more information about Dan Meyer’s ideas, visit his blog at
http://blog.mrmeyer.com
Steve Pardoe is the ETF’s specialist lead for maths in the West Midlands.
s.d.pardoe@
warwick.ac.uk
InTUITION ISSUE 34 • WINTER 2018 23
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