The Teaching of Mathematics Requires Urgent Restructuring, says New Report

Reading Time: 3 minutes

The pandemic poses an excellent opportunity to change the way we teach mathematics in schools.

The Teaching of Mathematics Requires Urgent Restructuring, says New Report
Photo by: golubovy.
Reading time 3 minutes
Reading Time: 3 minutes

The pandemic poses an excellent opportunity to change the way we teach mathematics in schools.

Because of the pandemic, education has had to migrate to the online environment. This change has impacted not only schools and their staff but also families by allowing mothers and fathers to be more involved with their children’s education.

According to the U.S. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and the National Council of Mathematics Supervisors (NCSM), during the pandemic, the urgency to change the way mathematics is taught has become apparent. According to both agencies, math instruction needs to be more equitable, so it is essential to plan what math classes will look like before returning to school in the coming months.

The NCTM and NCSM created a document titled “Moving Forward: Mathematics Learning in the Era of COVID-19″, with considerations and tips for schools and school districts. The National Council of Mathematics Supervisors notes that this document’s purpose is to provide information to schools, teachers, and school districts to empower and guide them in prioritizing the issue.

To advance in the next school year, educators must recognize students’ social, emotional, and academic differences, factors that have an impact on their learning, the report notes. While the future is uncertain, educators need to start planning, consider these aspects, determine which ones need more attention, and make decisions that do not exacerbate existing inequalities. The Council points out that students learn at different speeds, so the curriculum must be flexible so students can reach the content at varying rates to meet each student’s needs.

Planning is key

The document focuses on three critical areas for planning, namely, structural considerations, teaching practices, and advocacy. These topics challenge district leaders and schools to think about who should be in the conversation, what supports are needed, and what questions should be asked before moving forward.

Three critical areas for planning a mathematics program

  1. Structural considerations: These include support strategies for students to update them after the quarantine period. Institutions and teachers must differentiate the support, think out interventions, and rework school schedules to focus more on mathematics. The NCTM and NCSM also recommend approaches such as joint teaching or team teaching to help instructors coordinate their school grade content with what came before and what follows. Both agencies stress the importance of teachers working together to determine what is prioritized before teaching math in the new school year.

  2. Teaching practices: These refer to educators using educational strategies that focus on formative assessment to know how well they are learning. Adjustments should be made if necessary. Being flexible is critical. According to the document, there are eight practices for equitable and effective teaching of mathematics that serve to provoke students to think. These practices focus on formative evaluation. They serve to obtain and use evidence of the students’ mathematical thinking and to help the students feel valued. To implement them, the teacher needs to ask questions, analyze the assignments and activities, and observe them. These eight effective practices are:

    • Set math goals that focus on learning.

    • Implement tasks that promote reasoning and problem-solving.

    • Use and link mathematical representations.

    • Facilitate meaningful problem-solving course.

    • Ask questions with a purpose.

    • Develop procedural fluidity that comes from conceptual understanding.

    • Support the productive struggle in learning mathematics.

    • Obtain and use evidence of students’ mathematical thinking.

  3. Advocacy: This point refers to not limiting mathematical reasoning to the classroom. The purpose is to make the students see how math is everywhere, from their devices to politics and finance.

The National Council of Mathematics Teachers also notes that it is essential to get students to participate in meaningful mathematical discourse inside and outside the classroom. It is of paramount importance to promote mathematical reasoning and purposeful questions.

To be successful, the NCTM advises using an approach based on the teacher-student relationship’s strengths and skills and building and maintaining a positive identity and disposition toward mathematics. They also encourage improving relationships with families and the community to get them involved. Finally, the Council recommends ensuring that all students are given the same learning opportunities, and they advise educators to be on guard not to diminish these possibilities.

Both agencies’ most significant concern is to alert educators to the problems of inequality that have existed in education for several years. They point out that the problem comes from the curricular structure. They caution to avoid any unequal practices, such as the grouping of students by mathematical skills, that divides the class according to the student’s abilities. One example of this is putting together students perceived as slow learners and leaving them with that label throughout their student lives.

Analyzing the structure of curricula, being flexible, motivating students to see mathematics as useful and exciting, and planning to continue facing the pandemic’s challenges are some actions that will help to have more equitable teaching of mathematics.

Translation by Daniel Wetta.

Paulette Delgado

This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0