Early-Childhood

Hi Maulfry,

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply. What you say makes a lot
of sense to me and I would be most interested in your recent papers if that
would not be too much trouble.

Not being an educator. but coming from a psychological perspective is quite
difficult so I really appreciate your words.

All the teachers I speak to report very similar problems with the NNS,
things like
-not having the time to consolidate any one strategy before having to move
on to the next,
-being forced to teach more than one strategy to solve a problem thus
confusing the children
-and this - (which is at the core of my thinking) that the time spent on
whole calss teaching and mental maths isn't providing proper support for the
weaker ability children

With that in mind, I am currently testing a large group of children in 3yr
longitudinal project to examine how their immediate memory skills relate to
their development in maths skills. I agree (in very simple terms) that very
young children are greatly aided but putting their work down on paper and
taking it out of the abstract and into the real sense.

Ultimately I'd like to find out if we can predict those children who are
likely to be poor at maths and thus target some specific support in order to
at least bring them to an acceptable standard.

At this early stage (I am testing my first cohort now and will follow them
up over the next two years) I can't really tell anything yet, but I am
hoping that it will be a valuable piece of research for education in the
long term.

I look forward to reading your papers,

Once again many thanks,

Glenda




----- Original Message -----
From: "Maulfry Worthington" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, February 20, 2004 11:00 PM
Subject: Re: [EARLY-CHILDHOOD] National Numeracy Strategy


> Early-Childhood
>
> Hi Glenda!
>
> Whilst I haven't done any research directly on the NNS, I have been
working
> with a colleague for some years, researching children's 'written'
> mathematics. Whilst the strategy specifically recommends that children
'put
> down something to show' their thinking - use thier own ideas and choose
how
> to represent their maths - there is very limited understanding of how this
> might be achieved by teachers. QCA's book 'Teaching Written Calculations'
> outlines the strategy's thinking on this.
>
> The biggest block to effective understanding of the abstract symbols and
> algorithms of mathematics, is, we believe due to a number of factors
> including the universal dominance of worksheets (which prevent children
> building on their early understanding - literally, preventing them form
> making meaning). In terms of the NNS, another problem for young children
is
> that almost all Numeracy consultants (now Primary Strategy consultants)
have
> backgrounds in either KS2 or KS3 and therefore poorly understand the
> development and needs of children from 3/4 - 8). Another big problem is
that
> those who wrote the NNS documents and guidance for teachrs themselves also
> lack in-depth knowledge, experience and understanding of working with very
> young children. The result is that we have a 'top-down' curriculum that is
> less effective than it might be in helping children understand and use
> mathemaitcs with confidence.
>
> At the heart of our research is analysis of 700 examples of children's
early
> 'written' maths, which resulted in the developmetn of a number of
categories
> that show children's broad development from early scribbles, through early
> written numerals and calcualtions. The examples come from children's
homes,
> nursery classes and the bulk from Reception and KS1 classes. We have also
> carried out research with parents adn teachers adn in one large study,
> analysed responses from almost 300 teachers from 4 different areas of
> England, concerning their practice in repsect of 'wriiten' mathematics.
>
> As an outcome of our research we published a book last year 'Children's
> Mathematics: making marks, making meaning' (pub: Paul Chapman). I'd be
happy
> to email you a few of our recent articles / papers, if this would be of
> interest to you.
>
> Best wishes,
> Maulfry Worthington.
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Glenda Pennington" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2004 4:40 PM
> Subject: [EARLY-CHILDHOOD] National Numeracy Strategy
>
>
> > Early-Childhood
> >
> > Hi,
> > I am hoping someone can point me in the direction of some balanced
journal
> > articles about the NNS, particularly recent ones.  I am a psychologist
> > researching short term memory and the development of maths skills in 4-7
> > yr olds and I want to incorporate some research about the NNS.
> >
> > I have the offcial documents from NFER and the govt websites, however,
> > every teacher I talk to has an opinion that seems to contradict
> > the "official" stance on the effectiveness of the NNS.
> >
> > While most of the teachers I talk to accept that the NNS does work for
the
> > most part, it seems that most of them also think that certain parts are
> > not working for the children or the teachers.
> >
> > I am finding that most of the published research is weighed more on the
> > positive side, and doesn't provide a balanced view.
> > If you have any opinions on this or know of some articles that might be
of
> > use, then i'd be glad to hear from you.
> >
> >
>