Deep Progress in Mathematics: The Improving Attainment in Mathematics Project
<< Out of Print but read it here
This booklet sets out in brief research into how ‘deep progress’ could be made by low attaining students. It is not a full explanation of the research but sets out the principals behind the research and some of the ideas that the teachers used during the project that helped low attaining students make ‘deep progress’. The team defined ‘deep progress’ as meaning that the students would ‘learn more mathematics, get better at learning mathematics and feel better about themselves as mathematics learners’. As a teacher of low attaining students this certainly made sense as many low achievers do not achieve these aims, so I was interested to see what the researchers said about helping students achieve this.
Each page or double page is a summary of one aspect of the research but focuses mainly on the strategies used by the teachers to help achieve ‘deep progress’. Some of the titles of the spreads include ‘Generating concentration and participation’, ‘Students awareness of progress’, ‘Working on memory’ and ‘Typical Tasks’. The pages then give a brief outline of the strategies used to aid these topics. Some of the strategies will already be used in classrooms but there are enough suggestions for one to find new ideas or to adapt.
For those teachers who despair of ever getting some enthusiasm from their low attaining students the booklet gives lots of suggestions to try. It is certainly worth reading and trying some of the suggestions. However, as the researchers point out this was a long project and in some cases there was initial hostility on the part of the students to join in with longer tasks (like most things in teaching change takes time). The booklet is well worth reading and could be used within departments for discussion and developing teaching resources.
Yvonne Scott, Second in mathematics, Cox Green School, Maidenhead
The booklet is no longer available from University of Oxford, Department of Educational Studies
<< Out of Print but read it here
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