Changing pupil attitudes and a rise in results from 43% to 65% in one
year...
'Motivation is the most important factor in determining whether you succeed in the long run. What I mean by motivation is not only the desire to achieve, but also the love of learning, the love of challenge, and the ability to thrive on obstacles. These are the greatest gifts we can give our students.' (Dweck, 2006)
year...
'Motivation is the most important factor in determining whether you succeed in the long run. What I mean by motivation is not only the desire to achieve, but also the love of learning, the love of challenge, and the ability to thrive on obstacles. These are the greatest gifts we can give our students.' (Dweck, 2006)
‘Growth Mindsets in mathematics’ can have a huge impact on results, and the impact can be at a deep level. It can lead to changing the ethos of a school at classroom or whole school level depending on the size of the project. Pupils’ attitudes change from ‘I can’t do maths’ to ‘I can’t do maths yet’. This was the driving force behind the Excellent Mathematics Teacher network (EMT), a small scale pilot project to improve the quality of teaching and learning in mathematics with a view to scaling up in September 2014, via SIGs, if it has proven to be effective.
Twelve schools have chosen to be involved and one mathematics teacher from each school is in the network. These schools are from across the consortium and from all school categories. The emphasis is on Joint Practice Development (JPD), and NOT CPD. Members of the EMT network will be working on ‘Growth Mindsets in Mathematics’ - work which has been inspired by Professor Carol Dweck and developed for mathematics teaching by Helen Hindle. She is an Advanced Skills Teacher (AST) mathematics teacher from Brighton who will be working closely with me to enhance this further with the EMT network. Helen had great success in improving both results and pupils’ attitudes to mathematics in her previous job as Head of Mathematics. She cites Growth Mindsets as one of the key factors that changed the mathematics results for her school from 43% C+ to 65% C+ in one year.
Twelve schools have chosen to be involved and one mathematics teacher from each school is in the network. These schools are from across the consortium and from all school categories. The emphasis is on Joint Practice Development (JPD), and NOT CPD. Members of the EMT network will be working on ‘Growth Mindsets in Mathematics’ - work which has been inspired by Professor Carol Dweck and developed for mathematics teaching by Helen Hindle. She is an Advanced Skills Teacher (AST) mathematics teacher from Brighton who will be working closely with me to enhance this further with the EMT network. Helen had great success in improving both results and pupils’ attitudes to mathematics in her previous job as Head of Mathematics. She cites Growth Mindsets as one of the key factors that changed the mathematics results for her school from 43% C+ to 65% C+ in one year.
Network costs and supply cover will be paid for at the end of the pilot. In order to claim these costs each network member must do the following:
What are the outcomes for network members?
What are the implications for School to School working and SIGs
The twelve teachers span eight out of ten of the secondary SIG groups, they could run similar networks from September 2014, in this way we can further build capacity across our schools.
What happened?
These teachers have embraced change in their own classrooms, trialling and taking risks with different approaches to teaching mathematics. All twelve are writing action research projects based on their classroom practice and are beginning to think about how this will develop into workshops with other teachers. Some of the key classroom approaches are:
Teachers are discussing their work with each other, sharing ideas and taking risks. The next step is to allow each teacher to visit another in the network this term, to see some of their ideas in action.
What impact has this had so far?
This has gone better than we could have anticipated. This group is responding brilliantly and rising to the challenge of changing pedagogy in their classes in a very short time span. The time that’s been available to network each half term, has been essential as well as opportunities to communicate via forums and sharing research across a wiki throughout. Resources and materials have been shared online too.
Next steps
I propose growing similar networks next year with this group of twelve at the forefront of the new networks. Setting up and running these networks across pairs of SIGs with pairs of teachers from this group leading the networks.
- Full attendance at the four network meetings by the same person in order to ensure continuity over the two terms.
- Completion and submission of a simple report which will be shared across the network.
- Development of a workshop to be delivered to their own maths team and one other school.
- Work with other mathematics teachers in their own school.
What are the outcomes for network members?
- Develop them into the next generation of maths leaders.
- Learning from each other.
- Opportunities to access and develop effective approaches in Teaching and Learning and then to share and refine them.
- Establish collaboration and connections between schools.
- Emphasises the moral purpose of education for all.
- Reflect on their practice in school.
What are the implications for School to School working and SIGs
The twelve teachers span eight out of ten of the secondary SIG groups, they could run similar networks from September 2014, in this way we can further build capacity across our schools.
What happened?
These teachers have embraced change in their own classrooms, trialling and taking risks with different approaches to teaching mathematics. All twelve are writing action research projects based on their classroom practice and are beginning to think about how this will develop into workshops with other teachers. Some of the key classroom approaches are:
- Changing the ethos in class
- Learning journeys
- Differentiation
- Pupil voice
Teachers are discussing their work with each other, sharing ideas and taking risks. The next step is to allow each teacher to visit another in the network this term, to see some of their ideas in action.
What impact has this had so far?
- The teachers are flourishing and this is clear from their action research.
- Most are sharing this practice across their own departments, some are using it as leverage to change SoW.
- In the coming weeks network members will be delivering workshops to feeder primary schools, a national Teach First conference and groups of secondary schools.
- Teachers are talking about significant changes in student attitudes, results and resilience.
This has gone better than we could have anticipated. This group is responding brilliantly and rising to the challenge of changing pedagogy in their classes in a very short time span. The time that’s been available to network each half term, has been essential as well as opportunities to communicate via forums and sharing research across a wiki throughout. Resources and materials have been shared online too.
Next steps
I propose growing similar networks next year with this group of twelve at the forefront of the new networks. Setting up and running these networks across pairs of SIGs with pairs of teachers from this group leading the networks.
