Introducing Learning Mathematics in context

1. Introducing Learning Mathematics in context

2. Aims (1) • To reflect on your own experiences with Mathematics and how these might inform the way you approach teaching the subject with your own learners. • To consider how important Mathematics is in your own vocational or subject areas and to identify some of the mathematical skills and knowledge that might be required by your learners in a workplace setting.

3. Aims (2) • To experience an activity that gives a flavour of some of the activities in the resource. • To experience an activity that models the reflective and collaborative approach to professional development that is embodied in the Learning Mathematics in context resource.

4. Task 1 Personal mathematical history This might include: • courses you have studied • qualifications you have gained • approaches that your teachers took to teaching Mathematics and your response to those approaches • significant events that shaped your mathematical thinking • times when Mathematics has been really useful in your life • occasions when you have found some Mathematics hard or even impossible and how this was resolved.

5. Group task • Form groups of four to six. • Discuss your individual responses. • How have your own experiences influenced the way you would approach teaching Mathematics? with your learners? • Elect a note-taker to record the key points of the discussion on a flipchart.

6. Scales • Form groups of two or three. • Place the cards onto Sheet 2 so that the scales are correct. • Take turns when placing the cards. • As you place a pair of cards, explain how you reached your decision. • Use the blank cards to make up your own examples.

7. Plenary (1) Possible responses: • It is active. • There is more than one correct answer to each problem. • It encourages learners to talk about Mathematics and use mathematical language. • Learners can choose numbers that are at the right level for them. Experience shows that learners will usually choose more challenging numbers than their teacher will set them.

8. Plenary (2) • Blank spaces and blank cards create more opportunities for differentiation. • It offers a range of mathematical challenges, some straightforward and some much trickier. • The problem can be done either way round - real to scale or vice versa. • Learners can make up their own cards and problems. • It helps to develop mathematical skills that are useful across a range of vocational and subject areas.

9. Mathematics in the workplace • What mathematical skills and knowledge would be important for someone to function effectively in this environment? • Elect a note-taker to record the key points of the discussion on a flip chart.

10. The importance of Mathematics • What strategies can you suggest to help learners to see the relevance and importance of Mathematics in their own lives now and in the future? • Elect a note-taker to record the key points of the discussion on a flip chart.