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Changes about tasks
One significant aspect in which teachers took different decisions was whether to provide more structured tasks for some students than others, whether to offer more structure when it appeared to be needed, whether to encourage students to develop own structuring of complex tasks. When groups were set, it was usual for those teaching low attaining groups to structure the tasks themselves at the start - but not all teachers did this. Some believed this to be unnecessary and instead used whole class strategies to help students develop the confidence to make their own structuring decisions.
There were significant changes during the project.
- Nearly all teachers shifted from given schemes of work to focusing on bigger, key, ideas which embraced and underpinned secondary mathematics, not wanting to 'move on' until all learners had grasped central concepts.
- Teachers were less satisfied with open-ended tasks which 'could go anywhere' and instead looked for tasks and teaching approaches which had a clear learning purpose, such as exploring a central idea in a complex, extended manner. Tasks which posed a clear mathematical problem to be solved over time were also used.
- Teachers were also more aware of the need for fluency of certain skills, and all teachers ended up using traditional exercises and games approaches to this issue. Non-specialist teachers tended to use mainly this kind of task, so their students experienced significant change from the exploratory tasks used in year 7 to closed, structured, exercises in years 8 and 9
- Teachers became less likely to accept at face value comments such as 'it worked' and more likely to develop and adapt each others' ideas in discussion.
- As outsiders we noticed that discussions between teachers, and comments to us, became more articulate about the relationships between tasks, pedagogy and learning.
In all schools, tasks were seen as interwoven and developmental and organised in themes, not as separate events. There was always an intention to approach concepts from a range of points of view.
