Numeracy in primary schools

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Numeracy in primary schools

Numeracy is very important in primary schools today, with mental

calculations being a central part of the mathematics curriculum. These

mental methods of calculation should be encouraged from an early age,

mathematics is used in our everyday lives without many of us

realising; checking our change at the shops and leaving the house in

order to arrive at school on time.

It is advised that Numeracy lessons start with a 5-10 minute starter

of oral or mental calculation work, working as a whole class to

rehearse, sharpen and develop the children’s skills. Various ways can

be used to sharpen these skills including counting in steps of

different sizes, practising mental calculations and the rapid recall

of number facts; this can be done through playing interactive number

games ‘a number one less than a multiple of 5’ etc.

Mental calculations are introduced to children in the autumn term of

year 1 at a basic level of addition and subtraction. In key stage 2

these mental calculations have become more complex; children include

multiplication and division according to the National Numeracy

Strategy.

However, these mental calculation strategies are not as straight

forward as just asking the class a question in order to get a

response, individualisation or ‘over-differentiation’ in the teaching

of mental mathematics has been hailed as a major barrier to the

effective learning. It is clear from this statement from Professor

David Reynolds that individualisation is indeed an obstacle:

“We’re clear about what went wrong. Methods of teaching introduced in

the 70’s and 80’s, had deleterious effects on maths in particular. All

the research agrees that the one thing that badly affects p...

... middle of paper ...

...physical development it is up to teachers to help

and differentiate class work to coincide with the children’s

development.

However an alternative to Piaget's’ view of cognitive development was

provided by the Russian literary critic and psychologist Vygotsky. He

distinguished between lower functions of human psychology like

recognizing and sensation, and higher functions like thinking and

understanding. According to Vygotsky ‘What a child can do in

cooperation today, he can do alone tomorrow’. He talks about the Zone

of Proximal Development, which is their level of actual development of

their level of potential development, what they can do with help of an

instructor. The ZPD is an indicator of the teachability of the child.

Vygotsky suggested it gave a better measure of a child’s capacity than

any test of current ability, such as an intelligence test.

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