A wealth of information is available that could help rejuvenate the falling maths skills of primary and intermediate school pupils, but a University of Otago College of Education lecturer believes teachers have little time to read it.
The latest Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study survey found New Zealand pupils’ maths knowledge in the first year of secondary school (year 9) was now below that of all other English-speaking countries, and the lowest it had been.
As a result, the Ministry of Education has commissioned the country’s top science body, the Royal Society, to investigate the maths curriculum and the best ways of teaching the subject.
University of Otago College of Education maths education, curriculum theory and professional supervision lecturer Dr Bilinda Offen believed one solution could be as simple as making all the available information more accessible to busy teachers.
She said education students were not trained to teach one programme or one system.
Rather, they were prepared to think and make decisions for themselves, based on the latest research, literature and theory.
"Here at the university, we have the privilege and luxury of being able to spend our time reading all of that and trial things.
"But teachers just don’t have time for that because they’ve got eight curriculum areas.
"So I think it’s partly about making that current theory, current research and current literature accessible for teachers, in a way they can apply."
She said there were many complex contributing factors to the present situation in maths education.
One of them was a fear of maths.
"Maths anxiety is a big thing, so I believe the first thing we need to do is break down the barriers that cause maths anxiety.
"That includes things like timed tests, rote learning — that causes maths anxiety because that’s what kids see maths is. We need to take away the fear factor.
"You’ll find a lot of adults have maths anxiety.
"You’ll often hear adults say I suck at maths, but you never hear them say I can’t read.
"It’s about removing that anxiety."
She said the maths situation was also partly the result of the National Standards system, implemented by the National-led government in 2010 in an attempt to improve the reading, writing and mathematics performance of primary-aged pupils.
National Standards were widely disliked because it was believed they narrowed the curriculum, put undue pressure on children, increased teacher workload and were not an accurate measure of a pupil’s progress.
They were abolished by the Labour Government in 2017.
"We have, at the moment, sort of a hangover from the National Standards," Dr Offen said.
"What we should be looking at is kids being able to think mathematically.
"They need a certain amount of automation [memorisation] with some of their basic facts, but that isn’t the end-all and be-all of mathematics.
"Children need to be able to respond, explain, justify and prove their mathematical thinking."
She said there was also an issue with outside programmes being used in schools to teach children that did not look at their individual needs.
