I\u2019ve just read an outstanding book.\u00a0 Mark McCourt\u2019s Teaching for Mastery is an excellent resource for maths education specialists.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s so compelling about it is how clearly Mark understands the art of maths education.\u00a0 One part in particular struck a chord with me.\u00a0 He states that in order to convert to mixed ability classes from a setted structure, a school needs five or six years of commitment, forethought and funding to sufficiently develop their teacher\u2019s mathematical pedagogy.<\/p>\n
In fact, he suggests that headteachers who convert with \u201cjust a few day\u2019s professional development\u201d have no right to be leading a school.<\/p>\n
I couldn\u2019t agree more.\u00a0 This trend of moving to mixed ability classes for mathematics makes me sad – and seeing the impact it is having on the students (and teachers) brings a lump to my throat.\u00a0 The fact is, there\u2019s a massive loss in motivation for students who find themselves being taught material which is non-goldilocks in difficulty and\/or pace, yet it\u2019s virtually impossible to hit the right learning benchmark with every student in a class with a range of abilities.\u00a0 As a result, teaching staff feel demoralised and the educational environment doesn\u2019t thrive.<\/p>\n
So in my opinion, I\u2019d take it a step further.\u00a0 I believe Mark\u2019s 5 or 6 year timeframe is an underestimation in the current English system where school and teachers are expected to fight for themselves in writing or sourcing teaching content.\u00a0 Apart from the complex specific training required for mixed ability teaching, staff need to be experts in mathematics and mathematical pedagogy.\u00a0 This is something which takes most people 3-6 years of full time intensive study.\u00a0 For teachers who are not already specifically maths trained – and Mark reckons less than a quarter of UK teachers have a post-school maths qualification – this could take 15-30 years of part time study.<\/p>\n
There is one point in which I disagree with Mark, however.\u00a0 That\u2019s on the complexity he highlights in moving the other way around – from mixed ability to sets.\u00a0 I believe that, in fact, teachers who are expert at teaching mixed ability could create learning at least as good, if not better, with a setted class.\u00a0 And they could do this from day 1 with no training.\u00a0 That\u2019s because, in my experience, any setted class is still mixed in ability – the range could be less but it can still be wide and represent the single biggest factor hampering learning.\u00a0 Therefore, a teacher with any experience in mixed ability teaching would be best placed to overcome this first order problem.<\/p>\n
So thank you Mark, for highlighting this important point.\u00a0 I just hope all the heads considering mixed ability teaching for maths read and heed his advice.\u00a0 There are exceptions – I wouldn\u2019t advise changing a school with successful mixed ability classes and I appreciate that smaller schools are often forced down this route.\u00a0 But I would urge any other school who has made this change without adequate preparation to immediately change back to a setted structure, before too many pupils – and teachers – are damaged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ve just read an outstanding book.\u00a0 Mark McCourt\u2019s Teaching for Mastery is an excellent resource for maths education specialists. What\u2019s so compelling about it is how clearly Mark understands the art of maths education.\u00a0 One part in particular struck a chord with me.\u00a0 He states that in order to convert to mixed ability classes from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n