Try something different
There’s an interesting article in the TES titled ‘Why group work is growing in US and Swedish maths classrooms’. Group work is a key pedagogy promoted by FIN. That said, there is much more to this and we commend readers to follow this link and read the full article. An extract from the introduction states: “It’s becoming common to see students working away from their desks. Instead, they are standing at whiteboards fixed to the wall, working in small groups on equations, diagrams and in-progress calculations”.
We know many providers struggle with low-level functional skills, especially mathematics. If leaders keep playing the same old record, why would they even expect results to be better next year? Weak staff skills are already a significant AFI at inspection. The time has come for leaders to wake up to the need to change the approach and help more learners achieve.
The theory is based on Building Thinking Classrooms, developed by Canadian education researcher Peter Liljedahl. BTC centres on the idea that most classrooms are inadvertently designed to stop students from thinking. Clare Hill is a doctoral researcher at the University of Southampton and a former head of maths who was using vertical whiteboards long before BTC became fashionable. The energy of the room would shift completely when they were used, she says. Is this something the leadership team should consider?
FIN Members – To read the full article, click here.
