Offer a brief overview of the school’s approach to teaching mathematics, and indicate whether they have adopted a ‘mastery’ approach.

Mathematics Assignment 2021-22
Assignment title: Evaluating and developing mathematical pedagogy
An overview
Evaluation is an essential skill in ensuring that children are provided with effective teaching and
learning experiences. The mathematics assignment involves you critically evaluating and analysing
your pedagogical practice within the classroom and focusing upon how this can be developed to
support children’s understanding and progress. It will encourage you to draw upon reflections,
observations and evaluations of your teaching, and the children’s learning, in relation to
mathematics. During your taught sessions, you will be provided with a range of mathematical
teaching and learning tasks to undertake within school which you will use to inform and structure
your assignment.
You will choose one aspect or two related aspects of your mathematical pedagogy that you feel are
currently effective in terms of supporting the children’s mathematical understanding and progress.
You will read literature on your chosen aspect(s) and use this literature to help you discuss what is
working well and why. You will weave in examples from your teaching to analyse the impact that
your chosen aspect(s) has had on the children’s mathematical understanding and progress. You may
include examples of children’s work to support your analysis, and you may append materials. You
may also indicate how you would like to develop this aspect of your pedagogy even further.
You will also choose one aspect or two related aspects of your mathematical pedagogy that you
would like to develop in order to better support the children’s mathematical understanding and
progress. Again, you will read literature on your chosen aspect(s) to support your discussion. You
may refer to examples from your teaching to support your reflection on what you would like to
develop and why. You may also suggest specific lesson ideas or strategies you would like to
implement.
This written assignment contributes, in particular, to the Teacher Standards 2 (promote good
progress and outcomes by pupils), 3 (demonstrate good subject and curriculum knowledge) and 4
(plan and teach well-structured lessons).
Aspects of mathematical pedagogy
Reflect upon your mathematics teaching to date and think about what you understand (and what
research tells us) about effective mathematics teaching to help you to choose the aspects of
mathematical pedagogy you will focus on. Read literature, including research literature (often
published in the form of journal articles) on the specific aspects of pedagogy you have chosen.
The resources list (called ‘PGDipEd and PGCE Primary and Early Years Mathematics) has
recommended readings on aspects of mathematical pedagogy, as well as wider readings on learning
and teaching mathematics
Some of the pedagogical themes below are fairly broad, and you may wish to focus in further. For
example, in relation to ‘talk, language and questioning,’ you could focus in to identify a specific
aspect of pedagogy such as ‘promoting children’s talk in mathematics’ or ‘effective teacher
questioning in mathematics.’ You could discuss both of these specific aspects, as they are related. If
there are other aspects of your mathematics pedagogy (not on the list) that you would like to focus
upon, and you can find academic literature on your chosen focus, this is acceptable; please share
your idea with the course tutor, though.
Resources list – pedagogy:
• Teaching for mastery (this is too ‘big’ as a single theme, but you could present an overview
of key ideas and then focus in on one aspect of mastery)
• Variation theory and choice of examples
• Manipulatives and representations, including concrete, pictorial and abstract
• Fluency with conceptual understanding
• Problem solving and reasoning
• Talk, language and questioning
• Mathematical knowledge for teaching
• Early years pedagogy
• Awareness of errors and misconceptions
• Memory, cognitive load, small steps, worked examples and practice
• Growth mindset and grouping
• SEND and supporting low attainers
• Assessment for learning
• High attainers
You may also find the resources list section on number useful if you would like to write about a
subject-specific aspect of pedagogy, such as ‘supporting children’s mental calculation’ or ‘strategies
for developing children’s understanding of division.’ If you are based in Nursery or Reception, you
may like to focus in on an aspect of early years’ pedagogy, such as ‘using the outdoor environment
to support mathematical learning’ or ‘learning mathematics through role play.’ Very strong
submissions will also weave in theory, and there is a section of the resources list with suitable
references.

Written Submission
You are required to submit one written assignment of 3,000 words.
The title of the assignment is: ‘Evaluating and developing mathematical pedagogy’

The assignment takes the form of a critical discussion in which you will analyse aspects of your
mathematical pedagogy and identify how this will be developed. Your analysis of practice will be
driven by relevant reading and research. You will need to be selective and focused as you will not be
able to write about all aspects of your mathematical pedagogy within school. The suggested
structure of your written assignment, outlined below, will be shared for independent study (as a
Panopto)and further discussed within the drop-in session.
Introduction (approx. 400 words)
Using literature to support, outline why it is important that we teach mathematics, and why it is
important that we develop children’s mathematical understanding. Show your understanding of the
national context, referring to the Early Years Foundation Stage and/or the National Curriculum aims.
Using literature to support, explain the value of a reflective approach in the teaching of
mathematics, and how developing pedagogical practice can enhance children’s mathematical
understanding and progress.

School context (approx. 300 words)
Give a brief description of your SP1 (and SP2, if you write about this) school context, referring to the
latest Ofsted report, and including details such as the size of the school, age range of pupils, the
nature of the community which the school serves, and numbers of children who have SEND, EAL,
Pupil Premium. Offer a brief overview of the school’s approach to teaching mathematics, and
indicate whether they have adopted a ‘mastery’ approach. Indicate which year group you have been
teaching and which mathematical concepts you have taught. Explain that you have engaged in
reflection and signal to the reader the aspects of pedagogy that you have chosen to focus upon in
this assignment.
Strength(s) of current practice (approx. 1,000 words)
Discuss one aspect (or two related aspects) of your mathematics teaching that you feel is a strength
of your current practice. Using literature to drive your analysis, discuss why it is important and how
it has supported the children’s mathematical understanding and progress. Weave in specific
examples from your teaching to illustrate, for example, annotated children’s work and observations,
using appendices for any lengthy materials such as lesson plans and lengthy children’s work. Identify
any key issues, debates or challenges, and indicate any ways you would like to develop this aspect of
pedagogy further.
Developing future practice (approx. 1,000 words)
Discuss one aspect (or two related aspects) of your mathematics teaching that you would like to
further develop. Using literature to drive your analysis, explain why you would like to develop this
aspect, drawing on examples from your teaching and examples of children’s learning. Explain what
you would like to develop, perhaps suggesting specific lesson ideas or strategies. Indicate how you
hope this will impact on the children’s mathematical understanding and progress. Identify any key
issues, debates or challenges, and show your ability to critically analyse practice.
Conclusion (approx. 300 words)
Use this section to bring together the key ideas and reflect on why they are important. You may like
to make links to the ideas you presented in the introduction and also to your own personal values as
a beginning teacher of primary mathematics. You may also like to reflect on your school context and
the wider national context to support your conclusions about effective pedagogy.
References
Appendices
My dog died and the next day my husband died, Any help appreciated in anyway! Aiming for a 5 day extension but seriously cannot do this myself right now, Help to edit the bulk so it looks like I’ve done it