At Carswell we believe that thinking is at the heart of mathematics and that it is an excellent subject through which to explicitly model and teach 21st century learning skills. Reasoning, decision making and communicating are key elements of mathematical thinking and are central to maths learning at Carswell. We encourage children to embrace decision making and explaining their thinking over and above ‘the right answer’, praising the process and effort over the final outcome.
Mathematics is a creative and highly interconnected discipline that has been developed over centuries, providing the solution to some of history’s most intriguing problems. It is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. A high-quality mathematics education therefore provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.
National Curriculum 2013
Central to our teaching of ‘Number’ is Haylock and Cockburn’s connectives model which suggests that learning mathematics is about connecting experiences, language, images and symbols. For this reason, the use of concrete materials and images of mathematical concepts along with ‘talk’ are valued in our classrooms over and above a more traditional approach of considering only the abstract.
Haylock and Cockburn’s connectives model
Children use this model to help them to understand ‘number’ and to learn number facts so that they achieve deep learning of mathematical concepts.
Here is a great leaflet from Jo Boaler of Stanford University, to help parents support maths at home.