Mastery in Maths: A teacher's guide
What exactly is Mastery in Maths and how can classrooms embrace this educational concept to advance learning outcomes?
What exactly is Mastery in Maths and how can classrooms embrace this educational concept to advance learning outcomes?
Mastery in Maths is an approach to teaching and learning that aims for children to develop a deep understanding of Maths rather than memorising key concepts or resorting to rote learning.
The main objective and expectation are for all children (with rare exceptions) to have acquired the fundamental concepts and facts of maths for their key stage such that by the end of the unit they have attained mastery in the maths they have been studying. At this point, they must be ready to move confidently on to their more advanced level of Maths.
Maths Mastery is a concept that means pupils can use their conceptual understanding to solve unfamiliar maths problems and show complex reasoning, using the relevant mathematical vocabulary.
Mastery in Maths is not a quick fix to mathematical knowledge, but a journey of learning that the pupils and teacher go on with one another, with frequent diagnostic assessments to check the children's understanding of Maths and direct instruction that teaches to any learning gaps.
Teaching for mastery means the teachers (mostly with the support of school) must organise the classroom resources and classroom time in such a way that their students can experience mathematics mastery with them. Another concept that has been proven very popular for teachers in mathematics is the concrete, pictorial, abstract model. These teacher strategies enable primary pupils and secondary school pupils to experience mathematical concepts with their hands. The idea behind the concept is to make abstract ideas more concrete using simple physical and visual tools. One such tool is the bar method that originates from Singapore. Another framework that can be used within teacher planning for mastery is the Universal Thinking Framework. This taxonomy helps educators cover the curriculum for mathematics at deeper levels. These types of mastery learning approaches enable pupils to really think through concepts before moving on to more complex ideas.
Mark McCourt has identified 6 core elements of teaching for mastery.
It is important that the Maths Teaching provided here involves additional material that must not be provided to everyone. Primary school Mastery Curriculum must make clear which of the content is supposed to be understood by the majority of pupils and which involves depth of understanding and can be taught to those who master mathematical concepts quicker than others.
From the description of the elements of the mastery model, one may easily see how the Maths to primary school teachers play a crucial role in each section. The primary and secondary schools Maths teachers play a key role in locating and designing the most effective pre-assessment activities and they can eliminate and correct misconceptions in real-time. Also, they deliver high-quality instruction and know many ways of defining different ideas so that each pupil gets the tremendous opportunity to gain Mathematics Education.
All teachers experience the continuum of beginner to expert in Maths teaching. Through spending time on teaching and professional development training teachers progress from the novice-expert continuum where the emphasis is on strategic knowledge – lessons learnt from teaching to apply mastery teaching approach. This process may take around ten years of providing Maths education. Throughout a Maths lesson, children must be encouraged to discuss their thinking and justify their responses. These frequent opportunities to talk about their Maths lesson In a one to one environment with their Maths teacher helps to build childrens’ confident reasoning, and improve their verbal fluency, and problem-solving skills.
Application of Maths mastery approach can improve and help both secondary and primary schools teachers become more effective. Senior Leadership Team must provide professional development training to their teaching staff with a specific focus on the didactic and pedagogical knowledge of maths teaching, for instance, key procedures of teaching Maths using maths manipulatives.
Through carefully selecting pedagogy and knowledge of multiple didactic options, Maths teachers can help students to see the interconnectedness of mathematical concepts. It is important not to see Maths as a mixture of procedures to memorize and Maths Curriculum to get through. Maths must be seen as a journey to understand the world around us. Therefore, it is important to teach Mathematical concepts correctly the first time so that everyone can understand Maths and take part in the conversation. Maths mastery learning and teaching can take a long time, but it is something that is definitely worth the effort one may put in to reach the top.
Mastery in Maths is an approach to teaching and learning that aims for children to develop a deep understanding of Maths rather than memorising key concepts or resorting to rote learning.
The main objective and expectation are for all children (with rare exceptions) to have acquired the fundamental concepts and facts of maths for their key stage such that by the end of the unit they have attained mastery in the maths they have been studying. At this point, they must be ready to move confidently on to their more advanced level of Maths.
Maths Mastery is a concept that means pupils can use their conceptual understanding to solve unfamiliar maths problems and show complex reasoning, using the relevant mathematical vocabulary.
Mastery in Maths is not a quick fix to mathematical knowledge, but a journey of learning that the pupils and teacher go on with one another, with frequent diagnostic assessments to check the children's understanding of Maths and direct instruction that teaches to any learning gaps.
Teaching for mastery means the teachers (mostly with the support of school) must organise the classroom resources and classroom time in such a way that their students can experience mathematics mastery with them. Another concept that has been proven very popular for teachers in mathematics is the concrete, pictorial, abstract model. These teacher strategies enable primary pupils and secondary school pupils to experience mathematical concepts with their hands. The idea behind the concept is to make abstract ideas more concrete using simple physical and visual tools. One such tool is the bar method that originates from Singapore. Another framework that can be used within teacher planning for mastery is the Universal Thinking Framework. This taxonomy helps educators cover the curriculum for mathematics at deeper levels. These types of mastery learning approaches enable pupils to really think through concepts before moving on to more complex ideas.
Mark McCourt has identified 6 core elements of teaching for mastery.
It is important that the Maths Teaching provided here involves additional material that must not be provided to everyone. Primary school Mastery Curriculum must make clear which of the content is supposed to be understood by the majority of pupils and which involves depth of understanding and can be taught to those who master mathematical concepts quicker than others.
From the description of the elements of the mastery model, one may easily see how the Maths to primary school teachers play a crucial role in each section. The primary and secondary schools Maths teachers play a key role in locating and designing the most effective pre-assessment activities and they can eliminate and correct misconceptions in real-time. Also, they deliver high-quality instruction and know many ways of defining different ideas so that each pupil gets the tremendous opportunity to gain Mathematics Education.
All teachers experience the continuum of beginner to expert in Maths teaching. Through spending time on teaching and professional development training teachers progress from the novice-expert continuum where the emphasis is on strategic knowledge – lessons learnt from teaching to apply mastery teaching approach. This process may take around ten years of providing Maths education. Throughout a Maths lesson, children must be encouraged to discuss their thinking and justify their responses. These frequent opportunities to talk about their Maths lesson In a one to one environment with their Maths teacher helps to build childrens’ confident reasoning, and improve their verbal fluency, and problem-solving skills.
Application of Maths mastery approach can improve and help both secondary and primary schools teachers become more effective. Senior Leadership Team must provide professional development training to their teaching staff with a specific focus on the didactic and pedagogical knowledge of maths teaching, for instance, key procedures of teaching Maths using maths manipulatives.
Through carefully selecting pedagogy and knowledge of multiple didactic options, Maths teachers can help students to see the interconnectedness of mathematical concepts. It is important not to see Maths as a mixture of procedures to memorize and Maths Curriculum to get through. Maths must be seen as a journey to understand the world around us. Therefore, it is important to teach Mathematical concepts correctly the first time so that everyone can understand Maths and take part in the conversation. Maths mastery learning and teaching can take a long time, but it is something that is definitely worth the effort one may put in to reach the top.