This post is an excerpt from a longer article that I wrote and was published by HWRK magazine in its Autumn 2019 issue. There are a few tips below to help with improving children’s confidence in mathematics; however, for the full article and more tips please read the whole text in HWRK magazine, which can be found at: https://www.hwrkmagazine.co.uk/ and contacted at: enquiries@teach-media.co.uk and on Twitter: @HWRK_magazine .
‘This sense of failure haunting still, Lack of confidence feeding my fear, Descending sun invites the darkness in.’ These lyrics by the Finnish band ‘My Darkness’ encapsulate a great deal of the feelings I see in students when they are asked to be mathematical. Why is this? When does it start? How can we change this?
Initially, the role of mathematics is often shown to be finding the one and only answer to a question. Therefore, the slower children do the mathematics, and if they don’t get to the answer, children are under the illusion that they are not mathematical. This leads to a profound lack of confidence in their understanding of numbers.
The ideas that I have to improve confidence in students in mathematics lessons focus on four main areas: Lesson, Atmosphere, Memory and Personalised learning.
Lesson
Many student struggle in mathematics, because they are expected to understand numbers (or another concept) in an abstract way very soon after it has been introduced to them.
How can we help?
Using the C.P.A. (Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract) pedagogy, by Jerome Bruner, gives students the ability to ‘see’ mathematics concepts (a super new book to read based on this principal is Peter Mattock’s ‘Visible Maths’). Using mathematical equipment (concrete resources) helps students to ‘feel’ the numbers, but it needs to be controlled by the student as well as the teacher. Highly accessible drawer units are vital, and they must be able to return to these throughout a unit of teaching. Before reaching the abstract stage, the students can draw a picture of what they have discovered is happening to the numbers while using the equipment…
Atmosphere
The atmosphere of the classroom is key. Students need to feel confident enough to explore new ideas and to be able to make mistakes.
How can we help?
The best classrooms will be those where everyone is guided through their learning through discussion: enabling students to find an idea and explore misconceptions. Paired discussion gives students time to practise their ideas within a less pressured atmosphere…
Memory
Once mathematics has been introduced to a student at the beginning of their life, through early exposure to the numbers and shapes around them, there is arguably no new mathematics for them to learn at a primary level. All lessons then just build upon the knowledge that they already have.
How can we help?
Reminding students of what they already do know, and then helping them to see the connections of one topic to another through things such as connection webs can really help at the beginning of a topic…
Personalised Learning
Students will come to lessons with different sets of knowledge and will learn at different rates; therefore following each individually journey is vitally important in order to make sure every student is challenged.
How can we help?
Recently, I introduced the Lesson Study approach into my school. In a nutshell, this is a way of grouping teachers together, who have a particular skill set and a particular need, in order to enable them to plan, teach and reflect on a series of lessons together…
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