Maths Think Differently
Maths: Mistakes and Challenge
On this page
As a staff, discuss the importance of challenge, resilience, persistence and working through failure.
Plan – NumCo preparation (approximately 2 hours)
N.B. Each NumCo will work at their own pace and use these resources differently.
- Staff complete the Start Line survey.
- NumCo considers;
- Feedback from the staff Start Line surveys
- Animation content, follow up discussion questions, action planning, and evaluation suggestions
- Useful links to research below
- Clips of colleagues talking about maths anxiety
- Challenge Yourself poster (available in Irish)
- Believe in the Power Yet poster (available in Irish)
- Maths Think Differently bookmarks (available in Irish)
- NumCo decides on the staff development focus.
N.B. NumCo’s can use all of these resources or just a small part of them, whichever best meets the needs of the school.
Below are some useful links about challenge and failure:
Do – Staff discussion (approximately 45 minutes) and changes to classroom practise (4-6 weeks)
N.B. It may be easier to facilitate discussion if staff are divided into smaller groups where they feel more comfortable.
- NumCo guides the resource use and discussion.
- Identify small changes for individual classrooms.
Remember: Changes don’t have to be big to have an impact!
For example:
- Stop allowing pupils to stay in their comfort zone;
- Keep targeting tasks at individual needs; and
- Start using the word 'yet' when maths doesn't immediately make sense.
N.B. Staff may agree to work together to stop, keep or start the same strategy across the whole school or key stage, or each teacher may chose strategies specific to their individual classroom.
Review – NumCo preparation (approximately 1 hour) and staff discussion (approximately 30 minutes)
N.B. Each NumCo will work at their own pace and every discussion will be unique to each staff group.
- Staff complete the Impact Measure survey.
- NumCo plans feedback session.
- Staff discuss the impact of the changes and agree those to stop and those to keep.
- NumCo records the process and the impact measured.