MATC4402 Reading 1: Teaching for Mastery
What is happening in Primary Maths and what's next? - Report:
Mastery specialists are practicing teachers still based on teaching in their own school
They are trained to be expert classroom practitioners, who lead the professional development of teachers in their own school
In the first year they developed their own teaching practice and help colleagues in their own school they lead a Teacher Research Group (TRG) once a
week
The next year they work with another group of schools developing mastery and the programme focuses on current school-based evidence and practice
How is teaching for master helping teachers think about Maths and the way they teach it?
teachers report that the mastery specialist training under workgroup provides better understanding of teaching the mastery principles
It helps understand the structure of number and the important concepts of Maths better
It allows them to break down Maths concepts into small steps so children can understand
It teaches maths ‘in a different way’ using images and materials and helps understand why there's often Mathematic misconceptions
How is teaching for mastery changing the teaching of Mathematics?
Teachers change strategies to make sure all children access the whole curriculum by arranging the seating plan specifically, so there is mixed attainment
groups in mixed attainment classes. (In classes there are both high and low attainment children)
All children are expected to meet key learning points work and independently when doing the same work set
Challenges teachers and schools face:
Teachers - knowing what the most ideal strategy to support children who need it whilst also challenging high attaining children
Schools - still do not have knowledge of effective approaches that will ensure students are ‘keeping up and not catching up’
Schools - applying the mastery approach is difficult in schools where there is mostly inexperienced staff or not enough staff available
1
, How is teaching for mastery improving children's learning of Maths?
Children accept the ‘challenge of Mathematics’ as they are encouraged to believe that everyone can succeed through effort. Therefore, they become
positive about learning Maths and engage more in lessons
MATC4402 Reading 2: NAMA – Five Myths of Mastery in Mathematics:
Most mastery approaches try keeping the whole class together so that the instruction can be clear and understood
the mastery approach does not say that all students must do the exact same work and this shouldn't be different for groups and students
(DfE, 2013) states ‘...the expectation is that the majority of pupils will move through the program of study at broadly the same pace.’
However, (DfE, 2013) states that children should move on to the next part of the curriculum when they have ‘...grasped concepts’ and the children will
not understand ideas in an area of the curriculum at the same time
(Stripp, 2015) states that teaching mastery meets ‘... The needs of all peoples without differentiation of lesson content’. This suggests that teachers
changing the lesson four different ability groups does not fit with the idea of mastery
NCETM explains that differentiation is through urgent intervention (for example, meeting with parents) for children who are not meeting their
objectives. (For example, low attainment children who are achieving low grades)
However, differentiation can exist in a mastery approach by using the strategy of applying concrete pictorial and abstract representation according to
levels of conceptual development (Jones, 2014, Drury, 2014). this explains that high ability students can understand Mathematics through pictorial or
even abstract representation (where you do you not have to physically see something to understand it). This suggests that low ability students
understand Maths through concrete representation. For example, using objects to solve problems in Maths)
Many children have gaps in their learning due to not covering all the topics in the curriculum
(NCETM, 2015a) states that teachers should teach less mathematical topics and take longer explaining the topics. Hence the phrase, ‘more time on fewer
topics’
Some falsely believe that mostly only involves repetitive practice rather than concepts
(Ofsted, 2013) states that the best teaching observed in England is when there is “regularly checked learners’ understanding and knowledge
development through the learning experience.”
Teachers use precise questions in class to test pupils conceptual and procedural knowledge and to test students regularly to find out what students need
intervention to keep up
Pupils learned their multiplication tables at early stages, to build fluency and enable quick and mental calculations
Specialist mathematics teachers have the ability to provide quick feedback to pupils and effective intervention to support all pupils to keep pace with the
rest of the class
2
What is happening in Primary Maths and what's next? - Report:
Mastery specialists are practicing teachers still based on teaching in their own school
They are trained to be expert classroom practitioners, who lead the professional development of teachers in their own school
In the first year they developed their own teaching practice and help colleagues in their own school they lead a Teacher Research Group (TRG) once a
week
The next year they work with another group of schools developing mastery and the programme focuses on current school-based evidence and practice
How is teaching for master helping teachers think about Maths and the way they teach it?
teachers report that the mastery specialist training under workgroup provides better understanding of teaching the mastery principles
It helps understand the structure of number and the important concepts of Maths better
It allows them to break down Maths concepts into small steps so children can understand
It teaches maths ‘in a different way’ using images and materials and helps understand why there's often Mathematic misconceptions
How is teaching for mastery changing the teaching of Mathematics?
Teachers change strategies to make sure all children access the whole curriculum by arranging the seating plan specifically, so there is mixed attainment
groups in mixed attainment classes. (In classes there are both high and low attainment children)
All children are expected to meet key learning points work and independently when doing the same work set
Challenges teachers and schools face:
Teachers - knowing what the most ideal strategy to support children who need it whilst also challenging high attaining children
Schools - still do not have knowledge of effective approaches that will ensure students are ‘keeping up and not catching up’
Schools - applying the mastery approach is difficult in schools where there is mostly inexperienced staff or not enough staff available
1
, How is teaching for mastery improving children's learning of Maths?
Children accept the ‘challenge of Mathematics’ as they are encouraged to believe that everyone can succeed through effort. Therefore, they become
positive about learning Maths and engage more in lessons
MATC4402 Reading 2: NAMA – Five Myths of Mastery in Mathematics:
Most mastery approaches try keeping the whole class together so that the instruction can be clear and understood
the mastery approach does not say that all students must do the exact same work and this shouldn't be different for groups and students
(DfE, 2013) states ‘...the expectation is that the majority of pupils will move through the program of study at broadly the same pace.’
However, (DfE, 2013) states that children should move on to the next part of the curriculum when they have ‘...grasped concepts’ and the children will
not understand ideas in an area of the curriculum at the same time
(Stripp, 2015) states that teaching mastery meets ‘... The needs of all peoples without differentiation of lesson content’. This suggests that teachers
changing the lesson four different ability groups does not fit with the idea of mastery
NCETM explains that differentiation is through urgent intervention (for example, meeting with parents) for children who are not meeting their
objectives. (For example, low attainment children who are achieving low grades)
However, differentiation can exist in a mastery approach by using the strategy of applying concrete pictorial and abstract representation according to
levels of conceptual development (Jones, 2014, Drury, 2014). this explains that high ability students can understand Mathematics through pictorial or
even abstract representation (where you do you not have to physically see something to understand it). This suggests that low ability students
understand Maths through concrete representation. For example, using objects to solve problems in Maths)
Many children have gaps in their learning due to not covering all the topics in the curriculum
(NCETM, 2015a) states that teachers should teach less mathematical topics and take longer explaining the topics. Hence the phrase, ‘more time on fewer
topics’
Some falsely believe that mostly only involves repetitive practice rather than concepts
(Ofsted, 2013) states that the best teaching observed in England is when there is “regularly checked learners’ understanding and knowledge
development through the learning experience.”
Teachers use precise questions in class to test pupils conceptual and procedural knowledge and to test students regularly to find out what students need
intervention to keep up
Pupils learned their multiplication tables at early stages, to build fluency and enable quick and mental calculations
Specialist mathematics teachers have the ability to provide quick feedback to pupils and effective intervention to support all pupils to keep pace with the
rest of the class
2
