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Teachers' understanding of aims
At first there was confusion between the decision to use more exploratory tasks, a focus on mathematical thinking and learning seen as a collaborative process, focus on key ideas, and the decisions to teach all attainment groups. Some teachers tended to talk of these as if they were all connected. Confusion vanished in year 2 of the project when two schools set their students but maintained the use of the exploratory, thinking-focused, methods.
All teachers had underlying theories to support their aims, some of these were stated:
- Becoming a learner is more important than learning maths
- Confidence comes from airing ideas, not other way round
- Maths is not just exercises
- A lot of maths is about making logical moves from a starting place
- You learn more by focusing on the thinking rather than techniques
- You get a sense of achievement by working harder
- Maths is enjoyable, interesting, challenging - they don't know that yet
