Spiral of Inquiry reflection

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15/08/17 - SPIRAL OF INQUIRY REFLECTION

Self reflection

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"What have we learned? About scanning, focusing, hunchwork and learning? About our kids and our own practice? (as a group and individually)"
Our children aren't engaged in maths. They don't see maths as a 'real world' thing. Is our own practice too focused on numeracy? I feel we teach maths in a very chunked up way which may be why the children aren't seeing the links between different areas. We integrate so well during literacy, how can we do this in maths?
What is our understanding of our new practices, changes and intervention?
I understand the shift away from numeracy, standards based maths teaching and more of a move towards more problem solving, project based learning.
"What changes have we made? What evidence do we have?"
Term 2
I implemented project based learning with a group of lower ability mathematicians. The aim of this was to show the children how maths is used in the real world and how different areas of maths can work together. We only did PBL on Mondays, with Mandarin on Tuesday and then 'normal' maths strategy groups on Wednesday and Thursday. I felt this was a good introduction to PBL for both me and my learners as explicit teaching was still taking place.
Term 3
We have reflected on the lack of collaboration in maths in our team. How can we add in more collaboration? This is a work in progress at the moment. We are looking at doing optional workshops that the children can opt in to with different teachers.
"What was the impact on all learners? Selected learners All learners"
Project based learning saw a huge increase in engagement in my learners. There were lots of lightbulb moments during the course of our project where the learners realised how the maths they had learned could be applied. Overall this approach hit the wellbeing and engagement target I was aiming for.
"What would we do differently next time? Around spirals? In relation to our practices? (as a group and individually) In relation to change?"
If using project based learning again I would like to think about how to group the children within the project. There was quite a bit of whole class talking and workshopping which some children found challenging to keep engaged in. I had a conversation with a colleague around how we track strategies during problem solving or project based learning. I am wondering about the place of this in project based learning. Do we still need to focus on strategy? Or do we encourage children to solve the problem however works for them and celebrate the process and answer. I would like to give project based learning another go in maths as I feel it had great benefits for many of my learners. I would also like to do PBL more often in our maths programme and integrate explicit teaching more seamlessly into these sessions rather than as an extra add on.

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