Kew High School Maths Inquiries 2006
About this page
Introduction: The Mathematics Learning Area carried out an extensive review of their current professional practices, including an audit of the mathematics curriculum in 2000. As a result of this review the following changes were implemented throughout 2001-3:
- Greater focus on pedagogy.
- Problem solving became an integral part of all units.
- Movement away from a teacher centred, textbook driven curriculum, to one with a focus on activities, designed to develop a conceptual understanding of the important mathematical ideas.
- Establishment of Professional Learning Teams at each year level in order to meet on a regular basis to discuss and review all educational issues relating to the teaching of mathematics pertaining to that level.
Year 7 Dome 3D Space
As a logical extension to these changes, Kew High School became a member of Kew’s Innovation & Excellence Cluster and in turn the cluster became part of the Deacon University IMYMS Project 2004-5. Under this project, the following two areas (Remediation and Assessment Practices) of focus were identified, action plans developed and implementation commenced.
- A team of staff attend a series of sessions presented by Cath Pearn related to Identifying and Catering for Students at Risk in the Mathematics Classroom. These sessions reassured us that the changes that we had implemented (2000-3) would also assist in catering for the needs of the students at risk. It also provided us with the direction and ideas needed to fully develop our action research plan.
- Individual teachers have attended numerous sessions related to our identified focus presented by visiting teachers from the New Zealand Education Department at MAV and ACU Conferences over the past three years. The New Zealand Government has injected an enormous amount of time and funding, educating their staff with regards to developing Number Sense within their students. They have also developed an extremely good internet resource site.
- In 2005 the PALT organized a Kew Cluster professional development day for teachers within the Cluster, where the presenter was Dr Ann Gervasoni from the ACU. Ann focused on ways to identify and to assist children who experience difficulty learning mathematics, and on a holistic approach to supporting the learning needs of these students within our schools. Dr Ann Gervasoni PD
- In 2006 a staff member attended a day long session presented by Paul Swan (WA consultant) related to Number Sense. The day explored some of the big issues related to teaching number and has proven to be very beneficial in assisting staff to compile the Number Sense Units (see below).
Remediation
While a great number of changes had been implemented over the period 2000-3, including the implementation of a series of enrichment activities to cater for the more capable mathematician within the school community, no program had been developed that specifically addressed the needs of the students at risk in the mathematics classroom.
A SWOT analysis carried out by the Mathematics Learning Area (2004) clearly identified this as the number one priority to be addressed as part of the school’s involvement in the IMYMS project. This was reinforced by internal student surveying that indicated a low level of engagement, confidence and success experienced by many students within this identified group, as well as the frustration expressed by their parents, to staff, at parent-teacher interviews. Finally, analysis of our Year 7 intake revealed that a greater number of the students commencing at Kew HS were considered at risk in the mathematics classroom.
To better cater for students at risk in the mixed ability mathematics classroom,
Will greater awareness of the difficulties students experience in learning mathematic, enable us to better cater for these students?
PROFESSIONAL ACTION RESEARCH PLAN - Students at risk
While this plan was originally developed in 2004 as part of the IMYMS research project, the plan has been reviewed and revised at the end of each year. Our plan clearly links to and supports the Focus on teaching & learning and Purposeful Teaching characteristics of the effective schools model. It is also associated with the PoLT : The learning environment is supportive and productive, and in particular the component:1.4 Each student experiences success through structured support, the valuing of effort, and recognition of their work.
- Professional Development
Extensive professional development has been undertaken by members of the Learning Area on an individual, Learning Area and Cluster basis. The PALT recognised the need for staff to become better educated and more aware of the barriers and difficulties that students encounter, especially in relation to the number strand.
- Identification of students at risk:
It was decided to administer the PATMATHS 2A Test to all Year 7 students as early as possible in the school year. This test is used to identify the students who may be at risk in the mathematics classroom. Any student who manages to score at or below the 20th percentile (approx 12% of the population in 2005 and 18% of the population in 2006) on this test is then given an individual diagnostic interview by their mathematics teacher in order for their teacher to gain a better understanding of their development within the number strand.
- Development, Implementation and Evaluation of a series of Number Sense units.
Following the Cath Pearn professional development sessions it was decided to develop and incorporate four short “Number Sense” units into each year level from Years 7 to 9. These units would focus on mental computational skills with the emphasis on students communicating and sharing the strategies they employ, rather than being knowledge based. It is hoped that by focusing on strategies that this will assist the students at risk to accelerate their mathematical learning.
By the end of 2005, one unit had been written and trialled at the Year 7 level.
In 2006 a further four units have been developed and will be implemented by the end of the school year.
Student Explaining Strategy Whiteboard with student strategies
The following video clip of a student was taken approximately 10 weeks following the completion of the first Number Sense Unit on Addition and Subtraction strategies.
Number Sense- Whole Number 1 Unit Planning Page
- Implementation of Assessment for learning (Pre-testing of student’s knowledge) carried out for each topic undertaken at Year 7- 10. (See Assessment Practices Action Plan for details)
- Maths Homework Help Club
The establishment of a before school and lunchtime series of help sessions that is designed to be a drop in session for any student requiring assistance with their mathematics. At this stage these sessions have proved to be reasonably popular with senior students, with only a small number of Year 7 & 8 students taking advantage of the service. Further work is still needed to encourage greater numbers of students to attend.
Assessment Practices
While a large number of changes had been implemented with regards to pedagogy, little change had taken place regarding the assessment practices being used within the learning area. Any work related to assessment remained predominantly focused on the assessment of learning, with the main assessment tool still being the traditional end of unit test.
Component mapping of all mathematics staff, as part of the IMYMS project, indicated that the assessment component had the greatest difference between level of importance and what was actually happening in practice. This area was also identified via a SWOT analysis carried out by the learning area and from feedback from students and parents regarding their frustration and concerns with regards to the inconsistencies related to assessment of common tasks between teachers. There had also been ongoing frustration and concern from members of the school teaching community with regards to inconsistencies regarding teacher assessment, especially related to the allocation of student’s grades and CSF levels.
Hence the identified focus is:
The development of assessment and reporting practices that:
- Are ongoing and provide more regular and consistent feedback to student and staff
- Encourage students to reflect on, and take more responsibility for their learning
With the identified question of inquiry being:
- Will a diversity of assessment practices provide more comprehensive and reliable feedback to the whole school community?
PROFESSIONAL ACTION RESEARCH PLAN - ASSESSMENT 2006
While this plan was originally developed in 2004 as part of the IMYMS research project, the plan has been reviewed and revised at the end of each year. Our plan clearly links to and supports the Focus on teaching & learning and Purposeful Teaching characteristics of the effective schools model. It is also associated with the
PoLT : 5. Assessment practices are an integral part of teaching and learning
5.1 Assessment practices reflect the full range of learning program objectives
5.4 Assessment practices include self and peer assessment
5.5 The teacher uses evidence from assessment to inform the learning program
1. Making consistent judgements.
- A policy was developed to try to ensure consistent allocation of CSF levels between teachers. (This has now turned to the allocation of progression points.)
- The development of rubrics and additional teacher information sheets for all assessment tasks related to project and problem solving work, as well as clear marking instructions guidelines for all common testing.
Linked to both of these was substantial in-house professional development that entailed staff marking and then discussing the assessment of student’s work. Also the participation in the Kew Cluster PALT – Using rubrics provided the learning area with valuable assist and constructive feedback with regards to the rubrics being developed. The links below give an example of a project – 4x4x4 cube puzzle and a problem solving assessment task with the associated rubric.
4x4x4 cube puzzle 4x4x4 cube puzzle Rubric
One Track Mind One Track Mind Rubric
In 2005, a team of teachers at the Year 8 level investigated various self assessment tools that could be incorporated into the mathematics program. The links below give some examples of tools that the team trialled in 2005 and the video links are of students discussing the merits of the four different tools that they had encountered.
Traffic Lights Self Evaluation Skills Capacity Matrix
Self assessment discussion 1.avi Self assessment discussion 2.avi
Throughout 2006, all year levels from Year 7 to 10 will be implementing Assessment as learning (Self assessment) into their programs and will be giving regular feedback to all members of the learning area via the timetabled learning area meetings. The learning area has commenced investigating developing portfolios as a tool that can be used by both students and teacher, particularly in relation to the twice yearly three way interviews.
In 2005, a team of Year 7 teachers investigated using pre-testing as a tool to helpdetermine students’ prior knowledge and to inform the planning of each unit, in order to support each student’s individual learning needs. This work was undertaken in conjunction with the general testing and individual diagnostic interviews that were also implemented at this level in order to be better placed to support all students, but in particular those students at risk in the mathematics classroom. (see Remediation for more details). Both formal and informal pre-testing activities were trialled by this team. The links below give some examples of the pre-testing activities used and also an example of how some teachers tracked the acquisition of the various skills throughout the course of each unit.
Tangram Puzzle Pre-Test Chance Skills Acquistion Matrix
Throughout 2006, all year level teams from Year 7 to 10 will be implementing Assessment for learning (Pre-testing) into their programs.
In 2005, a team of Year 9 teachers investigated the nature of assessment tasks that were being used within the learning area particularly in relation to project and problem solving work. They investigated the work carried out by Dr Doug Clarke in relation to Rich Assessment Tasks. They discussed the key features of a Rich Task and then evaluated the assessment tasks currently being used at the Year 9 level to determine which of them could be classified as being Rich.