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The Secret of Numeracy
This document discusses how to promote numeracy and mathematical thinking across different subject areas. It argues that numeracy is relevant everywhere, not just in math classes, and provides examples of how to incorporate mathematical concepts and thinking into other subjects. Some key strategies include asking mathematical questions, organizing information visually, comparing concepts, and focusing on patterns, relationships, and logical thinking rather than just calculations. The goal is to help students see the connections between math and other disciplines and to think more deeply about subject content.
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The Secret of Numeracy
- 1. Supporting non- specialists to promote numeracyacross the curriculum
- 2. What’s the difference betweennumeracy and maths?
- 3. Don’t call itnumeracy! • Numeracy is vital, but irrelevant across the curriculum • Much better to focus on conceptual understandings and ‘mathematical thinking’
- 4. Why do students strugglewith maths?
- 5. The effect of‘affect’ • Being bad at maths is socially acceptable • Few students are cognitively incapable of passing maths at GCSE • But it makes some students ‘feel stupid’.
- 6. Learning vs activities •Performance is not the same as learning: 962 • Learning happens when you think hard about subject content • Anything which occupies working memory reduces our ability to think • Memory is the residue of thought.
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- 8. What not todo • English: count the number of lines in a poem • Art: calculate the amount of paint needed to cover your canvas • PE: time yourself running 100m, take your pulse, draw a graph… • History: Multiply the number of King Henrys by the number of King Georges
- 9. Thinking like amathematician • Number • Operations & calculations • Shape, space & measures • Data handling Limited applications across the curriculum Useful everywhere Make the implicit explicit
- 10. Thinking like amathematician • Identifying structures & relevant data • Being systematic • Searching for patterns • Thinking logically • Predicting & checking • Breaking down problems into smaller parts • Interpreting solutions in context of problem • Estimating to check likelihood of answers
- 11. The golden ratio:1.61803398875
- 12. A way ofunderstanding the world
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- 14. A mathematician, likea painter or a poet, is a maker of patterns … The mathematician’s patterns, like the painter’s or the poet’s must be beautiful; the ideas like the colours or the words, must fit together in a harmonious way. Beauty is the first test. GH Hardy
- 15. So, what canwe do in lessons?
- 16. 6 degrees ofseparation How do you get from here… …to here?
- 17. 6 degrees ofseparation 1. Select a topic or theme 2. write 1-6 down a page 3. Put your topic at no. 6 4. Get from the stimulus to your topic in no more or less than 6 steps
- 18. 6 degrees ofseparation Get from this clip to your chosen topic in 6 steps
- 19. Asking mathematical questions •How could you sort these.......? • How many ways can you find to ....... ? • What happens when we ......... ? • How many different ....... can be found? • What is the same/different? • Can you group these ....... in some way? • Is there a pattern? • How can this pattern help you find an answer? • What do think comes next? Why? • Is there a way to record what you've found that might help us see more patterns? • What would happen if....?
- 20. Domain specific thinking (withmaths) • specialising – trying special cases, looking at examples • generalising - looking for patterns and relationships • conjecturing – predicting relationships and results • convincing – finding and communicating reasons why something is true.
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- 22. Comparison alley 1st thing 2ndthing What they have in common Dulce et Decorum Est In Flanders Field
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- 25. The person belowthe ‘Quaker Christians’ set himself alight in protest at the Vietnam War ‘Quaker Christians’ goes in the centre right hand square The three aspects of Christian Just War Theory make up the centre column The person below the ‘Quaker Christians’ set himself alight in protest at the Vietnam War The only two square that relate to Islam are both in the left hand column The statement ‘war must be started by a legitimate authority’ goes next to the name ‘Norman Morrison’ The two word phrase that describes those people who refuse to fight in a war based on their moral compass goes is in the right hand column One aspect of just war theory is that ‘the good must outweigh the evil’ The name for the small band of Christianity that believes there is a light in everyone and so do not believe in taking life under any circumstances is underneath the phrase ‘conscientious objectors’ The phrase ‘Just War Theory’ goes in the top left hand square The name for the Muslim struggle to achieve outer peace which may involve going to war to protect your country or religion is written in the left hand column The name for the combination of inner and outer jihad is on the bottom rowNorman Morrison War must be started by a legitimate authority Just war Theory The struggle for peace Waging war must be the last resort The good must outweigh the evil Conscientious objectors Quaker Christians Outer Jihad
- 26. Presenting information • Mathsprovides new ways of seeing the world: – Graphs – Timelines – Flow charts – Graphic organisers – Pie charts
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- 32. Accuracy matters • Whatdoes maths teach us about attention to detail? • Getting it right vs. getting it done • Where can we apply the concept of ERROR CHECKING across the curriculum? – Dates in history? – Notation in music? – Learning lines in drama? – Punctuation in English?
- 33. The mathematics ofwriting • Grammar, like mathematics, is sequential. • Subject, Verb, Object (or other) I am a teacher • Construct a sentence that follows this pattern: P O, S V O C, P O, S V O VS O
- 34. Understanding scale • Amillion seconds = 11 ½ days • A billion seconds = 32 years
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- 37. Key points • Beingunable to think mathematically is not socially acceptable • If it doesn’t help pupils think about subject content, it’s a waste of time • Make the implicit explicit • The secret of numeracy… is that there’s no such thing.
Editor's Notes
- #7 13x74
- #18 to increase challenge- increase the degrees of separation
- #19 to increase challenge- increase the degrees of separation Chuck in steps – no 4 must be flags no 7 must be Nelson Mandella Close or open?
- #20 …poems?…demonstrate conservation of mass?…take out all the pronouns?…reasons for erosion…Between Hitler and Stalin?
- #27 …poems?…demonstrate conservation of mass?…take out all the pronouns?…reasons for erosion…Between Hitler and Stalin?