CMTP: Changes in Mathematics Teaching Project

Home / Department organisation / What teachers said about their classes

What the teachers say about their classes

The students we focused on presented very similar prior attainment and behaviour from school to school and teacher to teacher, yet there was a clear difference in their comments about classes. Most teachers were positive, and voluntarily talked about their mathematical potential:

• They are all mathematical
• They can all ask questions
• They can build on ideas
• They have gone from not knowing times tables to doing complicated mental maths in head

A few teachers made only negative comments, and these were about attitudes and emotional aspects:

• They hate maths because they cannot do the basic skills
• Some struggle with basic maths
• They give up too easily They don't like mental maths
• They want a clear way to one answer, this comes from primary school where they were set and test focused.
• Not all want to progress
• Disaffection arises from low confidence

In all schools there were objections - mainly about not really knowing how to teach mixed groups. One teacher was opposed to all-attainment groups on the principle that some students needed to be in groups where there was more focus on 'the basics'. Teachers generally interpreted 'basics' to mean understandings and procedures without which it is very hard to do more complex tasks. For some, this meant arithmetic in general; for others multiplication appeared to be the main problem. In SP, there was a great deal of concern about 'the basics' but this was expressed as not knowing how to teach mixed groups so that all students could achieve, rather than expecting some students to never be able to achieve more.

Towards the end of the project it was agreed by most that tutor groupings were the best kind of groups for mixed ability teaching, so that students knew each other in other contexts and there could be cohesion between teachers teaching them. All teachers disliked teaching split groups, and we were aware of difficulties for students, particularly the least socially adaptable, trying to learn maths within two different kinds of environment.

Problems with classroom management were generally seen as due to inappropriate tasks and students' past experiences and expectations of mathematics lesson; one claimed it is the teacher's responsibility to teach in ways which do not lead to poor behaviour.