Friday, January 24, 2020

Knowledge Gaps

Last calendar week I watched a pupil instructor explicate two-way tables to a Year seven class. She gathered information from the pupils in addition to drew a tabular array on the board. The immediate reaction from a set out of students was to shout out out, 'It's a Carroll diagram'. The instructor looked to me for confirmation - she'd never heard the term Carroll diagram earlier then she didn't know how to respond.

The same affair happened to me inwards my NQT year. I introduced two-way tables to Year seven in addition to a pupil said 'Miss, that's merely a Carroll diagram. We learnt these at principal school'. I'd never heard of them, then I googled the Definition inwards front end of the class. I found that Carroll diagrams are a type of two-way table. They organise information inwards the same way, but they exhibit the private pieces of data, rather than frequencies.
Neither Venn nor Carroll diagrams are specifically mentioned inwards the current Primary National Curriculum but it's probable that most children volition convey seen them at Key Stage 2. Students are required to "interpret in addition to nowadays information using bar charts, pictograms in addition to tables" in addition to it seems that Carroll diagrams are ordinarily taught here. But afterward Key Stage 2 they are never seen again. I aspect that students uncovering it a fleck strange when their maths teachers aren't familiar amongst maths they've learnt at principal school. I wondered if there's anything else that gets lost inwards the primary-secondary transition.

Arrays
Last calendar week I delivered my commencement fortnightly 'More Able Maths' session at a local principal school. Initially I was expecting to hold upwards working amongst Year 6, but instead I was assigned to a grouping of Year three children, followed past times a grouping of Year 4s. At commencement I wasn't certain what variety of affair to prepare, but I had about useful input from Twitter, addition my real helpful principal instructor friend Helen gave me loads of information, including her school's 'Pitch in addition to Expectations' documents for Year three in addition to 4.

During my commencement session I was leading a give-and-take almost foursquare in addition to cube numbers when i kid got stuck trying to call upwards ix x 9. I asked if anyone could advise a proficient agency of working it out. One kid suggested drawing an array. Ah, an array... Now I know that arrays are all the rage inwards the U.S. of America because I encounter them mentioned on Twitter quite often, but all of a abrupt I wished I'd paid to a greater extent than attention. I think he meant that drawing ix rows of ix dots in addition to counting them would hold upwards i agency of working out ix x 9. We discussed to a greater extent than efficient alternatives, such equally ix x 10 - 9.

Back at school, I chatted to my colleagues almost arrays. Arrays are used at principal schoolhouse equally a agency of explaining the concepts of multiplication in addition to division. Most of us don't role them at secondary schoolhouse because that agreement is good established past times the fourth dimension students acquire to us, in addition to to a greater extent than efficient methods convey been introduced. Even though it's unlikely I volition start using arrays inwards my teaching, I would create goodness from finding out to a greater extent than almost how they are used.
CPD Priorities
Realising that I convey gaps inwards my cognition of pre-secondary marking mathematics confirmed what I already knew - that I would create goodness from spending fourth dimension at a principal school, observing in addition to getting involved inwards the didactics of younger children. I'm certain this would hold upwards beneficial to most secondary teachers, but our didactics commitments don't permit us the chance for this variety of CPD. Our timetables are such that nosotros rarely convey fourth dimension to educate our agreement of how children acquire in addition to what they learn. When nosotros create acquire fourth dimension for dependent patch cognition development, our priorities oft prevarication elsewhere - for illustration I'm currently focusing on learning FP2 (which I'm didactics for the commencement fourth dimension this week) in addition to learning to a greater extent than almost the novel GCSE qualification. I'm lucky that my ain fille starts principal schoolhouse inwards September - I'm looking forrad to seeing how she learns maths, I think it volition hold upwards fascinating.






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