What is structured Maths?
This is an approach of teaching based on decades of research, not one person's bright idea or thesis.
- Every class in the school follows the same plan of learning to provide consistency.
- Each teacher will know exactly what to teach, when and how to teach it.
- Learning with structured materials are used to illustrate and give deeper understanding to what maths is.
This provides a consistency and rich development for each child.
This plan is sequenced, in a repeated, cyclic way with a rich development of knowledge known as a scope. This provides the children many opportunities to develop a confident knowledge of maths.
The New Zealand Curriculum provides the scope, but not the sequence.
Children all appreciate a teacher who can explain the language of maths, show them how maths works and why. This teaching is called – explicit teaching.
To help children understand the maths, a method known as Concrete – Pictorial – Abstract (CPA) is used.
We all learn this way, especially in reading. Our first experiences are with real things and our toys. Think of a ‘bus’. We see a bus and we ride on a bus so we know what a bus is. When we see a picture of a bus we remember seeing the bus and the experiences of riding on the bus. Then later when we read the word ‘bus’, we bring comprehension and meaning to the reading and later writing.
Similarly in maths, we hear the ‘sounds’ of the sequence of words, but it’s not until we see a group of things and name the group and explore how ‘a’ group is related to another ‘group’ can we understanding what numbers are. It’s more complicated with maths because we can’t see numbers anywhere; numbers are an idea or concept and must be represented with things – the concrete, then pictures and lastly symbols – numerals or digits.
This approach invites children to talk about what they are doing and seeing. Maths is all about communicating, exploring relationships and generalising. That’s why it’s so powerful.
Numicon is a structured/mastery approach
Watch the video below to understand further and create a conversation with those around you.
Does it work? Oh yes! Every school using the Numicon Approach sees huge jumps in their data in one year. The children love it! They are engaged and participate with enthusiasm.
Teachers love it because while the lessons are all provided, there is so much opportunity within their planning that they can bring their own creativity into the richness of Maths.
Contact us for more information. Book a visit to one of our schools or for one of us to visit you. Join one of our courses – in person or online. We LOVE to share our joy of maths with you!