A message from 10ticks Director,
Ian Fisher
Looking at the new maths
national curriculum for 2014, my first thoughts are, “A lot in a short
time!”. Rather than a rolling implementation, Years 1, 3, 4 and 5 in Primary
and Years 7, 8 and 9 in Secondary are all going to have to be taught the
new curriculum from September 2014. This is particularly an issue for Years 4/5
and Years 8/9 who will not have the benefit of being taught the skills directly
before them, but jumping blind into the depth of a new rigorous set of skills.
For Primary Schools the maths
curriculum has been laid out Year by Year, giving some structure and guidance
to teachers. At secondary level it has been laid out, rather more unhelpfully,
as a series of statements for all of KS3, with little guidance. If you want to
see a helpful national curriculum for teachers, have a look at the new CAPS
national curriculum for South Africa. This has been laid out with a lot of
thought and guidance for teachers. Time has been spent putting this together to
support the teacher and a more helpful time frame for rolling this out has been
introduced. Lessons have been learnt from their first national curriculum
disaster.
The main reasons for introducing
a national curriculum is to standardize teaching, putting continuity across
schools, and so that each maths department doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel.
Arguments range from, a more transient population needs this to support their
children, to publishers can put more effort into, and therefore get better
quality from, their resources. This is an argument Australians are debating
fiercely as they strive to get a national curriculum established. A lot of
countries, such as Canada, who do not have a national curriculum, perform
better than most in international league tables!
What can history tell us? The
very first introduction of the national curriculum here in the 1980s lasted 3
years before being changed, followed by a further stable period of 10 years. In
Malaysia their first draft of a national curriculum lasted 8 years without
change, South Africa’s first draft 6 years. Basically new curricula don’t last
long!
So why does a curriculum fail?
We write our national curriculum and then we implement the national curriculum.
Easy! To me, the content of the national curriculum should be decided jointly
by academics and business leaders. Academics can be far too clever and subtle
in their approaches, assuming that every teacher has the same knowledge base as
themselves (South Africa found this, to their cost). Sometimes the most
academic educational friendly approach doesn’t work (government definition: not
score highly in international tables), look at the international maths scores
of Malaysia. Malaysia teaches the four rules using rote and mechanical methods,
but does this consistently through the Primary phase. Methods that Malaysian
teachers understand and that are delivered consistently to the children
throughout this phase. No bouncing along on a number line! These children are
highly skilled in solving these type of questions, but are they numerate? What
does business require from our young population? What do academics, who
devise curricula, want? This can be different. Surprisingly Malaysia is
now turning to our maths approach, just as we turn to theirs!!
Let’s not get too hung up on the
curriculum content. I have worked on 5 different countries’ maths curricula and
all are appropriate, on the whole, for the country – in every country everyone
has an opinion (it would be a dull world if they didn’t), so every curriculum
has its detractors. So set aside the differences on the content, the success
will come down to one thing. You can have the ‘best’ curriculum in the world,
but if you don’t train the teachers, then inevitably, it will be doomed to
failure. There needs to be a certain time frame for effective dissemination and
a period of equilibrium to consolidate.
Academies do not have to follow
the national curriculum. Is this to encourage all schools to change to Academy
status as soon as possible? If all schools become Academies, then what becomes
of the national curriculum?? Is the curriculum a new born dodo, with built in
obsolescence?
So what have we now got in this
country? A hastily implemented curriculum. With the speed the curriculum has
been put together, followed by an abnormally short implementation period, I
give this maths curriculum 3 years before it is overhauled. This doesn’t
account for the uncertainty of politics (next election 2015) and the constant
need for politicians to meddle in education. This can only lead to frustration
for teachers given no direction and seeing no long term goals.
What would I be doing in a
Primary School? Well, this year gives you a bit of leeway. The four rules are
going to be taught quite mechanically. Vertical addition and subtraction will
be the cornerstone, so start teaching it this way within the number boundaries
that pupils are comfortable with, then when they are catapulted into the tens
or hundreds of thousands next year, the method will be familiar and pupils will
only have to deal with the increasing complexity of the number system. Likewise
for short and long multiplication. Year 5 have to multiply a 4-digit number by
a 1 or 2-digit number. So again work through the process with small numbers,
with which they are familiar and work upwards. And repeat with division.
Learning the mechanical methods this year may help with being thrown into the
deep end next year and help your pupils (and you) survive!
What would I be doing in a
Secondary School? When talking to teachers in South Africa, Malaysia, India and
South Africa they all cast envious eyes to the UK. They are forced to teach by
Grade (Year) curricula. This can be very inappropriate for some children. They
love the fact that we can set by ability and teach to an appropriate level.
Does this mean a return to mixed ability teaching? This could mean a huge leap
in content for some Year 9 children in 2014. I would be looking at the content
for the KS3 and devising a Year 7, 8 and 9 curriculum based on the statements.
With this in mind I would be looking to teach children in Year 7 and 8 a
cross-over curriculum next year, so that pupils are not wildly off key in 2014.
At 10ticks we are dedicated to
deliver to you the maths materials you need. We will be working feverishly over
the coming years to ensure that you have the latest curriculum requirements
covered. We already have a great deal of the material written for the new
curriculum. We introduced the low cost annual plan to take into account all
this uncertainty. If you subscribe to the 10ticks annual package, not only will
you be able you get them started this year, you will have all the materials you
need to deliver the maths curriculum next year, as we update and add to the
materials available to you every year.
