High-quality maths teaching is essential to achieving the best outcomes for all pupils.
Excellent maths teaching requires good content knowledge. But this is not the only thing required. Practitioners also need to know the ways in which pupils learn mathematics and the difficulties they are likely to encounter, as well as how mathematics can be most effectively taught.
Effective professional development is crucial for developing teaching quality. It can develop teachers’ content knowledge as well as their pedagogical understanding.
From my experience, effective professional development can also have other positive knock-on effects, such as growing practitioners’ mathematical confidence.
Confident teachers make for confident learners. It is a saying many of us will have heard, and one that sounds sensible. When confidence is cultivated and subject knowledge is sound, practitioners can nurture pupils’ independence and motivation.
Motivation matters
To encourage pupils to have positive attitudes towards maths, which we know is associated with improved progress, adults must model this positivity themselves.
Motivation also matters. As educators, we should work hard to foster it, and develop pupil’s independence and motivation for life-long learning.
This is likely to come easier to teachers when they are knowledgeable and confident in what and how they are teaching.
So as a leader, there are some questions to reflect upon, so that we can have a positive impact on the children that we teach.
- How do you model positive attitudes towards mathematics throughout the whole school/setting?
- How do you ensure that all staff, including non-teaching staff, encourage and model motivation, confidence and enjoyment in maths for all children?
- How do you engage with parents to encourage their children to value and develop confidence in mathematics?
In a recent EEF trial, Maths Champions – a maths professional development programme for early years educators – was shown to boost children’s development by up to three additional months. But educators’ testimonials about delivering the programme showed that the programme also successfully improved staff confidence in their maths teaching:
“Everybody’s confidence has soared…belief in myself [has increased] immensely.” Recipient of Maths Champions Programme
“Definitely, I am more confident… I am so much more confident in maths.” Recipient of Maths Champions Programme
“I think, in general, it [the Maths Champion programme] has just given us more ideas and made us more aware of things you can do… I think it’s given us more confidence to do it.” Recipient of Maths Champions Programme
So, when planning professional development opportunities in the future, consider how confidence and attitudes of practitioners can be nurtured, and how this can have a positive impact on the pupils in your setting.
To find out more about Maths Champions and to sign up for the subsided programme follow the link.