{"id":4161,"date":"2019-05-14T16:45:36","date_gmt":"2019-05-14T15:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/?p=4161"},"modified":"2021-06-15T17:19:54","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T16:19:54","slug":"whos-afraid-of-the-big-bad-maths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/whos-afraid-of-the-big-bad-maths\/","title":{"rendered":"Who\u2019s afraid of the big bad maths?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As National Numeracy Day approaches, Jennifer Shearman considers a world where no-one is afraid of maths.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It\u2019s National Numeracy Day and its organisers, National Numeracy, is marketing it as \u2018the Couch to 5k app for numbers\u2019. We are urged to get up from our comfy numbers-free couches, shedding our number inhibitions and confronting mathematics head on.<\/p>\n

Over three-quarters of working age adults have everyday maths skills below the \u2018standard pass\u2019 rate at GCSE. These people are at a disadvantage in the job market; growth industries such as Information Technology and Computing, Construction, Pharmaceuticals and Aeronautics all require a highly numerate workforce. Graduates (in any degree subject) with an A* in mathematics at GCSE earn, on average \u00a315,000 more per year than those with a C grade. It\u2019s harder if you are a girl; despite achieving higher marks in mathematics at age 11 and reporting as working harder than boys, girls are much likely to believe they are \u2018good\u2019 at maths or that a career involving mathematics is \u2018for them\u2019.<\/p>\n

We also remain resolutely scared of maths. Five percent of us are so afraid of numbers it affects our confidence to read timetables, check our change, or question whether that \u2018once in a lifetime finance opportunity\u2019 really is in our best interests.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Equating maths with speed doesn\u2019t help; while it is perfectly acceptable to dither about choosing pepperoni pizza or spaghetti bolognese from the menu, splitting that restaurant bill seven ways is something that must be done quickly.<\/p>\n

My third year Education Studies students explore all this as part of \u2018Maths in Society\u2019. They have bravely confronted their anxiety through exploring the structure of number, reflecting on maths anxiety research and considering why it is easier to do maths with a teddy than a teacher as part of the Epistemic Insight project.<\/p>\n

And times (tables), they are a\u2019changing. I visit lots of schools who are doing maths differently. The Maths Hubs programme, funded by the DfE and run with the NCETM, provide free or low-cost professional development for teachers of mathematics, including the flagship Teaching for Mastery programme. Teaching for Mastery is built on the premise that ALL children can do maths.\u00a0 Children learn together, and children who find maths difficult, or scary, sit next to each other and work on the same maths together.<\/p>\n

Teachers break down the learning into small, manageable steps, and open up the structure of mathematics for all to see. Instead of doing twenty \u20183+2=?\u2019 examples, children consider \u2018the fiveness of five\u2019. The equals sign becomes a symbol for equivalence rather than an instruction to \u2018do some calculating\u2019. Older children explore multiplication of fractions (for example x) by understanding their structure (2 multiplied by multiplied by 3 multiplied by \u00bc) and noticing that 3 x \u00a0is the same as 1, so the answer must be 2 lots of \u00bc, or \u00bd. Children talk about maths being interesting, fun and logical. Teachers are enthusiastic about \u2018talking maths\u2019 in the staffroom and watching each other\u2019s lessons to learn, not to be judged. Maths is explored, not feared or avoided. This is encapsulated in CBeebies\u2019 Numberblocks; the characters don\u2019t DO maths, they ARE the maths.<\/p>\n

Oh, and after the module my year three students are smashing their QTS numeracy tests. And their assignments aren\u2019t bad either. But how would I know? I was never good with letters.<\/p>\n

Jen Shearman is a Senior Lecturer in Secondary Mathematics Education in the Faculty of Education.\u00a0 She is the principal evaluator for the National Centre of Excellence in Teaching Mathematics.\u00a0 She can be contacted at <\/strong><\/em>Jennifer.shearman@canterbury.ac.uk<\/em><\/a> or @jenshearman <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As National Numeracy Day approaches, Jennifer Shearman considers a world where no-one is afraid of maths.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":151654,"featured_media":4165,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[201,3902],"tags":[2918,2910,2922,2906,2914,2898,2902],"class_list":["post-4161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-research","tag-addition","tag-calculating","tag-division","tag-maths","tag-multiply","tag-national-numeracy-day","tag-numbers"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"authorName":"Emma Grafton-Williams","featuredImage":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/437\/2019\/05\/shutterstock_795328972-1.jpg","postExcerpt":"As National Numeracy Day approaches, Jennifer Shearman considers a world where no-one is afraid of maths.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/151654"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4161"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7766,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4161\/revisions\/7766"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}