13th June 2012 11:57
By Blue Tutors
Chunking and Partitioning - new methods in Maths is challenged by Schools Minister
In a BBC Education report published on 22nd May 2012 Schools Minister, Nick Gibb, challenges a programme of Maths teaching that really seems to be working. Using new methods based on teaching children how the right answer is achieved rather than relying on memory standards seem to have improved. Currently four out of five children are reaching the level expected of them at the end of primary school, and a third of 11-year-olds are reaching the standard expected of a 13-year-old.
Although parents find it hard to understand the new methods, the statistics speak for themselves in that they clearly work for children. Nick Gibb may prefer the old method but that is likely to be because that was the way he learned rather than any objective measures.
The president of the National Association of Mathematics Advisers, Lynn Churchman, says like most of her generation, she was taught maths in a "very didactic way". As Ms Churchman explains, modern maths teaching focuses on the key concepts, and a renewed emphasis on mental methods and strategies as opposed to recall.
Ms Churchman says: "Mr Gibb believes that you can teach standard traditional algorithms and rules, and that it doesn't matter that children don't understand the concepts behind it.
"If he drives through changes backed by that philosophy, that could set primary maths achievement back years."
Does it matter that parents, or ministers, don’t understand how the teaching methods work - methods must move on, after all? When ministers use poor results as a reason for change, does it make any sense that they then ignore good results. It seems sometimes that change is just change, made for its own sake rather than backed by any hard evidence.