- The Alice Springs Mparntwe Education Declaration
identifies the importance of supporting our young people
to have the skills they need to participate
in the economy and society.
Progressing our students' numeracy
provides the essential skills required
to plan activities independently, think deeply and logically
and evaluate evidence in a disciplined way.
Numerate people engage with the world purposefully,
applying mathematics to real life settings and contexts.
It is important that numeracy capability
be developed for every Queensland student
with all of us playing a crucial role.
The numeracy teaching ideas provide practical activities
to support the continued work
of lifting student numeracy achievement in Queensland.
This segment will provide for you
an introduction to these ideas
and build understanding of how they align
to state school's vision
of the quality teaching of numeracy.
Research consistently defines quality numeracy teaching
as the result of informed pedagogical
content and contextual knowledge underpinned by practises
that provide a positive environment
with rich numeracy experiences.
Experiencing success in the application
of mathematics skills and knowledge
in all learning areas and subjects
from prep through to year 12 sets the scene
for a lifelong positive disposition to numeracy.
As identified in the department's,
moving numeracy forward P to 12 paper,
quality numeracy teaching
is central to moving numeracy forward in your context.
An understanding of the pedagogical practises
that are effective for students across the early years
through to the middle and upper primary years
provides the vital foundations needed
for students as they progress through the secondary years.
The numeracy teaching ideas
available on the numeracy P to 12 hub
provide targeted teaching activities
to support the quality teaching of numeracy
across learning areas and subjects from prep to year 10.
Aligning to the 14 sub-elements
of the draft P to 10 numeracy continuum
and written to encompass examples
from a variety of learning areas,
the numeracy teaching ideas provide a stimulus
for professional conversations and spark thinking,
giving starting points to support or extend
students' numeracy learning.
Each numeracy teaching idea is designed
with teacher usability in mind,
providing information on quality numeracy teaching
within the specific stages of schooling,
information on the pedagogical focus of the sub-element
and information about opportunities for numeracy
in a variety of curriculum learning areas
that teachers can explore in their unit planning.
Once the full suite of numeracy teaching ideas are complete,
every marker for each cluster from the continuum
will be supported by practical activities
that enhance targeted teaching
following the monitoring of student numeracy progress.
While this will support the quality teaching of numeracy
in the different stages of school,
what does quality numeracy teaching look like
through the stages of schooling?
And how do the numeracy teaching ideas align?
Let's look at the early years first.
Age appropriate pedagogies should be considered
when teachers are designing numeracy learning experiences
for students in the early years of school.
This stage is a foundational stage in numeracy development.
Teachers can assist students to develop a deep understanding
of number sense through the provision
of quality numeracy experiences,
the use of rich mathematical vocabulary
and through embodied and contextual learning
that uses a variety of concrete materials
connected to students' familiar experiences.
The early years numeracy teaching ideas
utilise activities and think aloud strategies
within familiar classroom transition times.
These include opportunities for group work,
lining up and routine experiences
such as gross motor obstacle courses
and fine motor threading and patterning activities.
Opportunities for numeracy within the curriculum
include following steps in design and technologies
and sequences in dance
as well as the ordering of familiar events
evident in history.
Quality numeracy teaching in years three to six
provide opportunities to further strengthen
students' numeracy capability
with learning activities that consolidate and extend
the application of mathematics across learning areas.
Activities that involve challenging
collaborative experiences for students
and real life problem-solving opportunities
support the development
of a positive disposition to numeracy learning.
A vital component of quality numeracy teaching
in this stage of schooling
continues to be the effective use of concrete materials
to support and deepen the understanding of concepts.
The numeracy teaching ideas in years three to six
make use of authentic contexts
to explore the application of mathematics
and its specific purpose in solving real life problems.
There are considerable opportunities
in this stage of schooling
to explore numeracy in the learning areas
including in science where studies on natural disasters
provide a rich context for collaborative exploration
of scale, measurement and data collection.
And in health and physical education
when investigating how tenths and hundredths
are used in the timing of running, swimming
and other athletic events.
Quality numeracy teaching in years seven to 10
facilitates functional numeracy
through the exploration of more advanced concepts
and the linking of abstract mathematical concepts
to practical applications.
The teaching and learning in these years
prepare students for success
in the senior stage of schooling
when numeracy's an underpinning factor of all learning
in years 11 and 12,
ultimately preparing our students for life beyond school.
The years seven to 10 numeracy teaching ideas
connect the real life applications of mathematics
to numeracy learning,
encouraging exploration and investigation of concepts.
The development of critical numeracy thinking
is evident in activities in geography where the knowledge
of rounding large numbers, capacity, measurement
and statistical analysis are used to investigate
water availability and scarcity in different countries
and comparisons of water usage for different purposes.
This is also evident in design and technologies
where the aesthetics of buildings
draw on properties of geometric shapes and objects.
The full suite of numeracy teaching ideas
will be progressively rolled out
on the numeracy P to 12 hub across 2021.
We are excited about how they can add
to the quality teaching of numeracy
in Queensland state schools.
During times one, two and three,
you can help shape these resources
and any of the materials on the hub.
Use the dedicated numeracy P-12 email link
on the homepage of the hub
to provide your thoughts on the materials,
how they have been used in your classroom
and in your context
and how you would like them to be enhanced.
Great feedback, suggestions and requests
have already been provided by regional offices,
school leaders and teachers,
helping to make state schools' numeracy resources
be as practical, engaging and useful as possible
for our Queensland teachers.
We'd love you to take up the opportunity
to use the numeracy teaching ideas
in your classroom or with your teachers
and reflect on how they support the quality teaching
of numeracy in your context.