Junior School Mathematics – Acknowledging the needs of girls Women in teaching – their role

JUNIOR SCHOOL MATHEMATICS – ACKNOWLEDGING THE NEEDS OF GIRLS

Denise Hayward joined Kinross Wolaroi School in January 2021 as Head of Junior School. Working in education, Denise’s goal is to educate young students for a contemporary world. As a leader in primary education, she has chaired the Independent Primary School Heads of NSW Deputies Group and participated in panels for the Women’s Leadership Network and Initial Teacher Education. She holds a Bachelor of Education (Primary), Graduate Certificates in Assessment and Mathematics and certifications in Didactic Behaviour Therapy and Single Gender Education.

I want to live in a world where everyone can learn and enjoy math, and where everyone receives encouragement regardless of the color of their skin, their gender, their income, their sexuality, or any other characteristic. I would like to walk into math classrooms and see all of the students happy and excited to learn, not worrying about whether they look as ‘smart’ as others or whether they have the ‘math gene’.”

Boaler, 2016

There was a time not so long ago when people believed mathematical differences between males and females were caused by biology. Males had superior spatial abilities while females were better at language and writing. Studies have since proved this wrong.

Despite societal expectations for each gender causing vastly different learning experiences, confidence levels and performance in international benchmarking tests remain.

Females receive messages from parents, friends and society, such as: “I was no good at maths in school” or “I know this is really hard, but let’s try and do it.” Messages like these link failures to ability, which harms performance.

Research tells us girls learn best in small groups and social situations. Girls, more than boys, desire a depth of understanding - to know why methods work, where they come from and how they connect to broader conceptual domains – and the opportunity to discuss maths. This promotes confidence as they engage in dialogue, share and build on ideas.

By finding a balance between multiple-choice tests and open-ended assessments, students, especially girls, have opportunities to better demonstrate their proficiency through words, which they feel more confident using.

Research shows the achievement gap in mathematics between boys and girls has all but disappeared. That said, studies still report girls often rate their mathematical ability lower than boys do, even when no actual differences in mathematical achievement exists. At KWS, we understand the importance of fostering a long-term interest in maths, especially for girls, which relies on developing strong beliefs about their abilities in mathematics.

Engagement with maths during primary school years is also crucial if students are to develop an appreciation for, and understanding of, the value of maths.

We use three strategies related to self-efficacy in the Junior School. These include teaching students that academic abilities are not fixed but expandable and improvable; exposing girls to female role models and providing informational feedback. Such feedback praises effort; identifies how the student has erred in problem-solving and/or points out how the student has improved in their use of specific strategies. This is important for girls as feedback centred on ability gives girls the impression academic success depends on their innate intelligence rather than effort and continued learning.

Teachers in the Junior School also create opportunities for students to be heard and discuss ideas before coming to conclusions. They are given plenty of thinking time. An effective strategy used at KWS is the ‘think-pair-share’ technique in which, after time for private thought, students share their answers with a neighbour and then with the entire class. The paired discussion lends credibility to their thinking, fosters mathematical communication and develops a sense of confidence.

At KWS, we also choose activities that allow concepts learnt in the classroom to be used in the real world. These connections are achieved through our TREE and co-curricular programs. For example, while developing our vegetable garden, students calculated the amount of soil needed and used area and perimeter concepts to lay out the new garden beds. In addition, the four operations of numbers were combined with concepts related to money as students went to the hardware store to purchase plants, tools and other garden materials. Maths becomes so much more engaging and makes sense when it is used for a purpose.

So where to next for the Junior School? Teachers are embarking on an 18-month learning journey into maths. During this time, we will continue to look at who our students are and how best to engage them in learning. We will look at approaches to learning, incorporating both explicit and inquiry learning with the latter focusing on rich tasks.

Rich tasks have multiple entry points and multiple solution pathways. They allow for a wide range of responses, which encourage students to think creatively, work logically, communicate ideas, synthesise their results, analyse different viewpoints, look for commonalities and evaluate findings. Rich tasks allow learners to use their initiative, work to their strengths and explore a topic in depth.

Through the use of explicit teaching and rich tasks, our goal is to open up mathematics and transform the subject from a collection of memorised procedures and facts into a living, connected whole. To allow learners to ‘get inside’ maths, to work mathematically by inviting students to rationalise and make conjectures, to hypothesise and then test their ideas, and to justify their findings and represent them in meaningful ways. The goal is to provoke mathematical curiosity and develop deep understanding •