Category: Mathematics
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As students return to the classroom, Keep calm and cluster!
by Brian Murray As many students begin to return to their classrooms for the first time in many weeks, there are huge implication for schools and teachers. The fortunate few For some fortunate teachers, the transition experience from home-education to face-to-face teaching will be smooth and fluent; perhaps their students have sailed along merrily with…
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There is still value in learning the times tables, even in the smartphone era
By Brian Murray, co-author of Oxford Mathematics At the start of trivia night I recently attended, the organisers requested that all participants’ smartphones should be switched off. This was not because the phones might cause a disturbance, but because those running the quiz could not trust us to resist the temptation to cheat. In this,…
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Maths for Everyone: Why there is no such thing as a ‘maths person’
‘I’m not a maths person.’ That’s a statement you’ve all probably heard many times. However, the skills that students learn in mathematics are among the most practical taught in school. Mathematics underpins the world we live in and it teaches our children valuable problem-solving skills. Mathematics provides us with a language to explain much of…
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Maths teachers can help students avoid financial pitfalls in the future
First published by EducationHQ. Following recent scrutiny of the banking sector by a Royal Commission, there have been calls to end the practice of allowing a financial institution, such as the Commonwealth Bank, to “invite itself” into primary school classrooms through schemes such as the “Dollarmites” children’s banking project. The bad press directed at the big…
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Tips for implementing inquiry based maths in the primary classroom
By Anita Green “The only way to learn mathematics is to do mathematics.” – Paul Halmos Ever since I started teaching, I have always aimed to provide students with high-quality maths lessons that contain strong links to real-life contexts. Students need a range of hands-on experiences that engage them in challenging and meaningful activities. When…
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Global trends in the teaching of mathematics
By Annie Facchinetti “After 30 years of doing such work, I have concluded that classroom teaching … is perhaps the most complex, most challenging, and most demanding, subtle, nuanced and frightening activity that our species has ever invented … The only time a physician could possibly encounter a situation of comparable complexity would be in…
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Why teachers are turning to the new Oxford Atlas+
In the past, the atlas was firmly at home in the Geography classroom. Students learned the North Pole from the South, where to find the equator and that there really is a place called Timbuktu. With the introduction of the new Oxford Atlas+ for Australian Schools, it is clear that the atlas has come a…
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Maths trauma is real, but it can be avoided. Here’s how.
By Oxford Insight Mathematics author and lecturer in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at UNSW Sydney, Daniel Mansfield Maths trauma, the issue highlighted in the US edition of The Conversation, is real. If a student never masters irrational numbers then when they come to trigonometry (which involves lots of irrational numbers), they will receive…