Some schools in New Zealand have been implementing it for over 10 years. Is it making a difference? Well the NEMP report released in Sept 19 2010 showed that there had been no improvement in achievement for Y8 for over 12 years and overall between 2005 and 2009 no improvement for any year level. There could be a lot of reasons including:
- a lack of skill and understanding on the part of teachers in the numeracy framework
- variation in implementation of the numeracy project nation wide (it is not compulsory)
- where it has been implemented variation in the quality of teaching
- confusion over how and when to promote children through the stages
- lack of rigor around follow up activities after teaching time
- removal of maths from a real life context and problems
The last reason may also impact on enjoyment. Children need to know more than having several strategies. Then need to know and understand maths in a real life problem solving context. Is it time to make time for real problems, real issues and then teach maths in context just in time rather than endless amounts of just in case teaching?
It is time to look at what we are doing in maths once again.
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