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Other things said about teaching PLAS
Where much of what we report here relates to teachers' work with all students, some interesting remarks were specifically about the PLAS.
- Using paper is better than using exercise books because some weaker students often rubbish their own writing and paper is less daunting. Paper can be stored in school in folders. Exercise books can be lost.
- Comparing students' different approaches between themselves means they have to think hard to understand each other.
- It is hard to develop appropriate tasks for homework. One teacher believed that it was inappropriate to expect all students to behave in 'middle-class' ways and sit and study at home. This expectation made assumptions about the home environment and students were often 'punished' for not doing homework when something else was really the matter. It was also said that 'homework that is easy to set is usually punitive to do and does not generate learning'.
- Teachers need to find out from students: "Is what you are hearing and seeing the same as I am hearing and seeing?"
- "Differentiation is about asking yourself what each child has been given to think about."
- Doing tasks in a trial and error way is not always useless - you can find out about constraints that way
- Teachers' own ways of working give clues about how to help others. One teacher could not describe in words without using algebraic structure, so words do not only precede algebra, they are also supported by it; another teacher could not visualise and was hence not convinced by a diagram.
- One teacher announced that "we have found that with a determined attitude and common sense you can get up to about level 5" but they cannot get beyond that without special ways of mathematical thinking.
