Reforming Mathematics education in remote indigenous communities

Transcription

1 Reforming Mathematics education in remote indigenous communities The Maths in the Kimberley project is funded through the Australian Research Council Linkage Grant scheme with the Association of Independent schools of Western Australia (AISWA) as the industry partner. The grant is jointly held between, Brisbane and Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. ISBN , 2010 This collection is therefore intended as a resource for the industry partner, teachers, schools and communities to provide them up to date information on the project s progress, as well as a resource for new teachers and staff to the schools involved. The aim of the Maths in the Kimberley project is to address the issue of underperformance of remote Indigenous students in mathematics through using a framework of high demand mathematics along with an innovative pedagogical model.

2 Challenges of building a Western sense of number One of the challenges is that the Indigenous culture does not emphasise the number dimension of numeracy. In a publication that is both a language guide and dictionary for the Nyikina language (Jarlmadangar Burru Aboriginal Corporation, 2003), the language of one of the schools we visited, the following are the number words: Jalkarr big mob (perhaps 20) Kakoorroo few (of people) Koojarra two Koojarralayana three Mandajarra multiple of people, crowd Manyja many Manyjamirri a group of about 10 people Mookoodoo group (of anything) Wanyjarri one Yoodarra large number (moving) Clearly it is not possible to build a Western sense of number from these words alone. Not only are there no specific words beyond three, even the word for three seems an alaboration of the word for two (the suffix layana does not appear elsewhere in the dictionary). Interestingly there seems to be a sophisticated lexicon for place and direction words. For example, there were 18 different words for describing location, as well as four different expressions for each of the four compass directions, making a total of 34 distinct terms that can be used. The goal of this project is explicitly to find ways to support the teaching of Western numeracy in these schools.

3 Exploring better ways to teach mathematics Traditionally mathematics teaching has followed a very rigid approach that has remained relatively resistant to change. There are many reasons for this, least of which is the history of the discipline and the lack of confidence in many primary school teachers with the discipline knowledge. Collectively these work towards mathematics being taught in particular ways despite a plethora of research to show that there are much better ways to teach. Group work Communicating mathematically Some group work is simply students sitting at a common space but working individually. This reform approach advocates that students bring strength and knowledges to the table that will be different from their peers but collectively these differences enable the students to grow. Principles of group work are: Role of group members is for responsibility for self and others learning Teacher facilitates activity but puts responsibility to students for their learning (shift of responsibility from teacher to students) Group work is activity based to solve a rich problem Engagement with the task Students need to talk and use mathematical discourse. They may negotiate meaning in a multi-lingual manner where a mix of both home and school language are used as they negotiate meaning, but their final reporting is done in school English. This is particularly the case when students work in groups. The tasks should be rich, deep and fair enough for the students to be able to talk amongst themselves, to draw on a range of knowledge, skills and dispositions to solve the task. There is an expectation that students will justify, argue, etc their mathematical thinking and working in a public sphere. High level tasks As learners, each person is likely to think in different ways from others. Traditionally mathematics teaching has focused primarily on text-based written work (i.e. pencil and paper). Such a method fails to recognise the multiple ways of representing work and understanding. Thus, students need to be given the opportunities to express their thinking and learning in a range of ways. Tasks need to be develop that encourage working mathematically in a deep manner: The tasks presented to the students should be of a high level so that the curriculum is not dumbed down for students. However, the tasks need to be developed so that there are multiple entry points and multiple exit points due to the diversity within any one classroom. Multidimensionality

4 Identifying what students know This model for teaching and learning is premised on the notion that it is critical for teachers to know what the student knows and then to build on from that point. There is little value in teaching a concept if students do not have prerequisite knowledge from which to build the new knowledge being taught. As such, there is a need for a significant shift is assessment from the dominant approach which focuses on identifying what students do not know (summative assessment). Such an approach does not allow teachers to find out what the students strengths are and then to build from that. By working with students to identify what they know is fundamental to providing the key learning activities to build and extend current thinking. Strategies for identifying what students know becomes critical as most often it is easier to identify what they don t know. Once a teacher knows where and what students mathematical thinking is, then there is scope to provide the appropriate learning strategies that will enable the student to build new, more robust understandings. Research Team Robyn Jorgensen Professor of Education Peter Sullivan Professor of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education Monash University Stephen Lerman Professor of Mathematics Education London South Bank University Peter Grootenboer Senior Lecturer Jo Boaler Professor of Mathematics Education Stanford University Richard Niesche Research Fellow

5 Project Publication List 2010 Grootenboer, P. J. Mathematical belief change in preservice primary teachers. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education. Jorgensen, R., Grootenboer, P., Niesche, R. & Lerman, S. (Forthcoming). Challenges for teacher education: the mismatch between beliefs and practice in remote Indigenous contexts. Asia Pacific Journal of Teacher Education Jorgensen, R., Grootenboer, P. & Niesche, R. (2009). Insights into the beliefs and practices of teachers in a remote Indigenous context. In B Bicknell et al (eds), Bridging the gap. Proceedings of the 32nd conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia. Jorgensen, R., Sullivan, P., Grootenboer, P. & Niesche, R. (2009). Reforming Mathematical Pedagogy in Remote Indigenous Contexts, Symposium. In B Bicknell et al (eds), Bridging the gap. Proceedings of the 32nd conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia. Sullivan, P. (2009). Describing teacher actions after student learning from rich experiences. In B Bicknell et al (eds), Bridging the gap. Proceedings of the 32nd conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia. Sullivan, P., Youdale, R., & Jorgensen, R. (2009). The link between planning and teaching mathematics: An exploration in an Indigenous community school. In B. Kissane (Ed). Proceedings of the biennial conference of the Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers. Fremantle. Sullivan, P., Youdale, R., & Jorgensen, R. (2009, in press). Know where you are going and how to get there. Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom Jorgenson, R. & Niesche, R. (2008). Equity, mathematics and classroom practice: developing rich mathematical experiences for disadvantaged students. Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom, 13 (4), pp Zevenbergen, R., Sullivan, P., Lerman, S., Boaler, J., Grootenboer, P. & Niesche, R. (2008). Reforming pedagogy in remote Indigenous contexts. Curriculum Leadership, 36 (4). Zevenbergen, R. & Niesche, R. (2008). Reforming mathematics classrooms: a case of remote Indigenous education. Working Paper No. 2, Griffith Institute for Educational Research,. Zevenbergen, R., Niesche, R., Grootenboer, P., & Boaler, J. (2008). Creating equitable practice in diverse classrooms: developing a tool to evaluate pedagogy. In M. Goos, R. Brown & K. Makar (Eds) Proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Group of Australasia (MERGA).