About a month or so ago now I became increasingly frustrated with the perpetuation of crisis myths about mathematics education in Australian legacy media and discourse.
In response to this, I posted on LinkedIn some challenges to the core myths that are really undermining mathematics teaching in Australia.
You can see the original posts here and here, which I have also listed below.
Myths that really undermine mathematics teaching.
1. Problems start in primary school and kids fall further behind in high school.
Nope 👉 https://lnkd.in/gebJAVUE
2. Maths in primary schools is just languishing.
Nope 👉 https://lnkd.in/g4f3UYkX
3. “Faddish” teaching practices are running rife in primary schools.
Nope 👉 TIMMS survey data of Australian primary teachers indicates 86% of Year 4 teachers surveyed explain mathematics concepts half or all of mathematics classes (60% in every math lesson).
4. We need a Year 1 numeracy check.
Nope 👉 currently sitting at zero 👌evidence for the effectiveness of such an initiative.
This got the attention of Henry Grossek, who was kind enough to have me on his show for a second time to chat about it all and get on the soapbox for a bit.
I figured I might try out the audio post functionality of Substack, so here goes.
A big thank you to Henry and Rob Kelly for the permission to share this episode here, I hope that you find this conversation good food for thought.
Please share your thoughts if you get the chance.
Till next time,
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