To support the development of this approach to maths, DC Primary teachers have had the wonderful opportunity this year to participate, along with colleagues from across ESF, in a research project led by Professor Peter Sullivan of Monash University in Australia. Professor Sullivan visited DC for two days in February, during which he modelled lessons in each year group, led discussions with each team of teachers and led a staff professional development meeting. As part of the research project, teachers in all six Primary year groups were provided with a range of Rich Tasks problems and challenged to structure their lessons in a specific way to encourage students to develop persistence when faced with challenging mathematical situations. Some examples of the tasks presented to students can be seen here:
Year 1 & 2
Year 3 & 4
Year 5 & 6
In a photo of a farmyard, you can see 10 legs. Draw what the animals might be. Give more than one possible answer.
In my basketball club, there are between 20 and 50 players. I know that there are 3 times as many girls as boys. How many girls and boys might there be in our basketball club?
The average temperature over 5 consecutive days was 28°C. The highest temperature was 36°C. What might the temperature have been on the other 4 days? I did a multiplication question correctly for homework, but my printer ran out of ink. I remember it looked like 1 __ × 4 __ = __ __ 2 What might be the digits that did not print? Give as many answers as you can.
Grow. Discover. Dream.
Students also appreciate many aspects of tackling maths problems posed in this way, as the recent comments from some Year 4 and Year 6 students show: “I like having the time to figure out how to solve problems by myself - being independent and using my brain.”
“We have to use ‘grit’ - to keep working and trying, even if we fail we should keep learning from our mistakes.” “It gets us thinking more as the problems have lots of different possibilities.” “It’s great when you get to share what you’ve done - it’s cool to teach others and you also get to learn different strategies when they share what they’ve done.” With responses like these from both teachers and students, it is clear that Primary maths at DC is being seen as a creative, flexible and even imaginative subject. It is encouraging students to build a deep understanding of important mathematical ideas as a solid foundation for creating solutions and solving problems. Andy Eastwood Vice Principal (Middle Primary Leader)
4
The response from teachers to the Rich Tasks approach has been hugely
positive. One colleague commented, “I see students developing their bank of strategies when faced with problems that they may not have seen before. They are taking more risks with their mathematical thinking as there is less teacher inclination to jump in and rescue the students at the outset. I see students developing confidence in recognising what they don’t know and finding ways to learn that before they move on. They are building banks of problem solving strategies to help them to work through tasks and taking pride in their achievements as they discuss their thinking with the class. Students feel pride when other students then follow their ideas. I see students becoming mathematical thinkers.”
2017
Teachers were asked to pose the problems to the students with very little introduction, other than ensuring that they understood the problem. Students were expected to find their own ways of tackling the problems, drawing on, making connections with and building upon their existing understanding. When tasks are presented in this way, students face the challenge of planning their approach, processing multiple pieces of information, choosing their own strategies, spending time on the task and recording and explaining their thinking to the teacher and other students. Teachers were also asked not to ‘over-help’ the students by showing them how to solve the problems, but to encourage them to persist in finding their own solutions. The rationale for this approach is backed up by research which shows that students are highly motivated by overcoming challenges and gain enormous satisfaction from using their creativity and imagination to find solutions.
Some people came for a sports day. When the people were put into groups of 3 there was 1 person left over. When they were lined up in rows of 4 there were 2 people left over. How many people might have come to the sports day?
SHI JIE MAGAZINE – SPRING
In my family there are three children. The total of the ages is 15 years. All the ages are different. What might be the ages?
F ocus O n – M athematics
Rich Tasks examples: