Nine months into delivering the novel GCSE together with I'm starting to wonder if these reforms are going to work. The Government wants to enhance standards in maths instruction together with thus that England tin flaming 'win the global PISA race'. But global league tabular array authorization is non our country's exclusively aim. The Government is also trying to increase the character together with quantity of students taking maths at H5N1 level. This, apparently, volition brand the dry soil 'more productive' together with increase our students' earning potential. These aims arrive at non sit down good amongst teachers, but nosotros all concord that at that spot is room for improvement inward maths education. We desire what's best for our students, together with for hereafter generations.
The Government's mechanisms for raising standards inward mathematics instruction are:
1. Supporting teachers to improve the character of teaching.
2. Increasing the amount of fourth dimension spent teaching maths.
3. Increasing the amount of content on the GCSE specification.
4. Increasing the marker of challenge inward GCSE exams.
So is it working?
Quality of teaching
The best means to enhance standards inward mathematics instruction is to improve the teaching inward classrooms across the country. Although there's lots of vivid teaching, if yous facial expression at the bigger painting demo we're genuinely seeing a lowering of teaching standards equally schools expire to a greater extent than together with to a greater extent than desperate to recruit. Vast numbers of students are beingness taught by teachers who lack the bailiwick cognition to learn maths effectively. There's also many classrooms where demeanour administration comes earlier maths. Sad but true. The electrical flow landscape is non conducive to proficient teaching.
Many of us honour that our busy teaching timetable ofttimes gets inward the means of preparing high character lessons. The exclusively initiatory that would genuinely brand whatever pregnant divergence to the character of teaching across the dry soil would last a reduction inward contact time, giving teachers to a greater extent than chance to prepare their bailiwick cognition together with pedagogy. Of course, a reduction inward contact fourth dimension volition never come about because of the costs involved.
The Government has made some investment inward the Maths Hubs initiative, and a number of hubs are doing fantastic work, but it's definitely non enough. Not past times a long way.
As Anne Watson says, reported inward today's Schools' Week article, at that spot has been “little back upwardly provided for this really radical shift of focus inward teaching".
Timetable allocation
I welcomed the Government's drive to increase the amount of fourth dimension spent teaching maths, which was incentivised past times double weighting maths on Progress 8. But or together with thus schools own got non adjusted their timetables. This has resulted inward a huge mismatch inward teaching fourth dimension across the country, amongst students inward or together with thus schools getting five hours a calendar week compared to iii hours a calendar week inward others. This disparity genuinely adds upwardly across the course of instruction of a schoolhouse year. It's a maths education lottery for children.
New content
I taught Linked Pair GCSE this year, equally role of a airplane pilot inward which students own got 4 exams, leading to 2 GCSEs inward maths. My students were taught a lot more content than students inward most other schools. So did learning more topics inward Linked Pair arrive at amend mathematicians? I don't cry upwardly so. Just because my cast tin flaming calculate AER together with (on a proficient day) approximate the surface area nether a curve, it doesn't hateful that they are amend prepared for H5N1 marker maths than your class.
If nosotros desire our students to last amend prepared to embark on H5N1 marker maths, nosotros desire them to last fluent amongst algebra, indices, fractions together with surds. Strong reasoning together with work solving skills are of import too. Adding novel GCSE content similar frequency trees together with iteration doesn't accomplish this.
The worst affair almost the GCSE reforms, inward my opinion, is the increase inward breadth when inward fact all nosotros needed was to a greater extent than depth. We already had also many topics on the GCSE syllabus together with at ane time nosotros own got fifty-fifty more.
Harder exams
Making GCSE exams harder is exclusively an effective machinery for improving the character of maths instruction if it is accompanied past times a corresponding shift inward teaching quality.
Vanessa Pittard of the Department for Education says, “As a dry soil together with civilization nosotros arrive at ask to reform our whole approach to mathematics, our expectations, our teaching, our attitudes to maths”.
This huge cultural shift won't come about overnight. It surely won't come about past times adjacent summer. It's going to ask investment, strong leadership together with patience.
