Key messages for Mr Gove

Tuesday 16 April is the closing date for responses to the DfE consultation on the proposed reform of the National Curriculum.

If you are planning to respond, go to:
https://www.education.gov.uk/consultations/index.cfm
Registration is easy and the response form provides plenty of opportunity for free comment.

Here are some of the key messages I hope the government will receive from the consultation.

• The previous proposals for reform of the primary curriculum, abandoned by the present government in 2010, were better than these, because they involved genuine consultation with the profession so teachers generally felt they could be delivered and that they reflected the learning needs of children in this age range.
• The current proposals are unlikely to help children in primary schools to learn how to learn mathematics in a meaningful way. They will not see mathematics as something they can make sense of, but mainly as a collection of rules and procedures to be learnt and memorised in isolation.
• Children will not learn that mathematics is an enjoyable and relevant subject that can be learnt in a purposeful way. Using and applying mathematics is lost in the detail of the content, rather than given the prominence it warrants.
• There is a huge mismatch between the stated aims and purposes of study of mathematics, which are good, and the statutory content, which seems obsessed with arithmetic processes. Genuine mathematical reasoning is largely ignored. 
• Similar criticisms have been made of the proposals for other subject areas. The aims and purposes of study seem to have been written by a different group of people from those who wrote the statutory content.
• The expectations for operations with fractions and other formal written calculations year by year are unrealistic and seem destined to promote failure by a greater number of children. This will increase the number of people who think they cannot do mathematics and dislike the subject.
• Some calculation requirements (particularly those for long division) are quite irrelevant in today's technological world, in which knowing what calculation to do and how to interpret the result are more important than being able to do a complex calculation.
• The emphasis on arithmetic processes is based on a false premise that these are somehow what mathematics is really all about. Mathematics is not mainly about learning how to do calculations, but this is the underlying message of this curriculum proposal.
• The phrase 'efficient method' for doing a calculation is not defined and its use to refer to traditional formats for subtraction by decomposition, long multiplication and long division is open to challenge.

Learning the facts of multiplication

Some of the press who are particularly supportive of Michael Gove's reactionary, dreary and unrealistic curriculum proposals deliberately misrepresent those of us who oppose them. We are accused of not wanting to teach children facts. For example, it seems that we don't think it's necessary for children to learn their multiplication tables by heart, and so on.

Let me put the record straight.

Of course, we want children to memorise their multiplication tables. And the more multiplication results they memorise the better. If this is helped by chanting the tables in the traditional way, then that's fine by me. This is precisely what I say in my books! But there is a distinction to be made between learning these results with understanding and learning them by rote. Rote learning usually refers to learning which is not connected and therefore not meaningful to the learner. Results such as multiplication tables can be memorised by rote, but usually the  learning is less secure and it is always less useful and less transferable. In fact, it is well established that using patterns and connections reinforces memorisation.

So, for example, I would want pupils to use the fact that 3 × 4 = 12 to get 3 × 8 = 24 by doubling, and then to get from this to 6 × 8 = 48 by doubling again; and to see the connection between 3 × 7 = 21 and 6 × 7 = 42, and then by adding another 7 to get 7 × 7 = 49.

Then they can explore the simple patterns in the 5-times, 10-times, and 9-times table. They can find which numbers don't turn up as results in any of the tables (apart from their own). They can learn about commutativity and exploit it. They can learn how to use what they know to work out what they don't know.

Then the children need to connect these results with everyday situations, with rectangular arrays, with areas of rectangles, with the informal and formal language of multiplication, with steps along a number line, with corresponding divisions results, and so on. They need to explore questions like: why do many medicines come in packets of 28 tablets?

Yes, memorise the results, but also explore, exploit and enjoy all the connections. In this way the tables begin to make sense. The 'facts' can be learnt with understanding and pleasure.

For calculations with 2- and 3-digit numbers (and larger) we need know no more than the tables up to 10 × 10. But, bizarrely, presumably because they learnt them at school when there were 12 pence in a shilling and measurements of length were done in feet and inches, Mr Gove and his crew are prescribing that tables must be learnt up to 12 × 12.

There's no harm in children learning by heart the 11- and 12-times tables, but it is impossible to justify picking out these tables rather than any others and making it mandatory that children should memorise them. It would be easier to justify learning the 28-times table, so that those who go into healthcare will be good at handling tablets that come in packets of 28. I like to get Year 6 pupils to explore the 37-times table and to discover the delightful pattern in there: 3 × 37 = 111, 6 × 37 = 222, 9 × 37 = 333, and so on.

So, let me repeat! Give them the facts, yes. But give them understanding and enjoyment and purpose in learning as well.

Petition to reformulate the proposed national curriculum

I just signed the petition "Re-formulate the proposed new National Curriculum (Primary)" and wanted to ask if you could add your name too. 

This campaign reflects a lot of my concerns about the current proposals. The more support we can get for this petition, the better chance there is of succeeding. You can read more and sign the petition here: 

http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/re-formulate-the-proposed-new-national-curriculum-primary 

Can you also take a moment to share the petition with others? It's really easy – all you need to do is forward this email or click these links: 

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Thank you! 

News on primary curriculum

The previous government accepted the recommendations put forward by Sir Jim Rose for a new primary curriculum to come into force from September 2011. However, the Department for Education (DfE) ministers announced on Monday this week that the new government will definitely not implement this. I have just received the following news on the primary curriculum from the QCDA.

"DfE ministers feel that schools should be given more freedom from prescription and bureaucracy. With this in mind the government intends to return the national curriculum to a minimum national entitlement organised around subject disciplines. The next steps in this process will shortly be announced on the DfE's website at www.education.gov.uk. In the meantime, the existing primary curriculum will continue to be in force in 2011/12 and schools are expected to plan on that basis."

The existing national curriculum for Key Stages 1 and 2 is the one published and made statutory in 1999.

Page proofs arrived! Fourth edition and workbook.

The page proofs for the fourth edition of Mathematics Explained for Primary Schools are now here with me in Norwich. It's always an exciting day when the page proofs arrive and you see what the new book is going to look like. The publisher (Sage), the designers and the typesetters have done a brilliant job: the layout looks most attractive. It's not for me to comment on the content!

I also have the page proofs for the Student Workbook which will come out at the same time as the fourth edition. This is a new venture, in which I have been helped by Ralph Manning at UEA Norwich. It will be interesting to see how well it gets taken up. We trialled the material with the PGCE primary trainees at UEA – they were very enthusiastic and gave lots of helpful feedback. The workbook provides tasks related to the mathematical content of the main textbook, chapter by chapter. There are tasks that are used to check your understanding; tasks to get experience of using and applying mathematical skills and concepts; and tasks that focus on the learning and teaching of mathematics.

The hiccup in the legislation for the new primary national curriculum (see my previous post) does not cause us too many problems for the fourth edition. Our plan is to make the links with both the current primary national curriculum, the proposed new primary curriculum and the level descriptions on the website that will support the fourth edition. The new book will certainly take into account some of the emphases in the proposed new curriculum for Mathematical Understanding, with some new material reflecting the way in which primary mathematics is developing in the 21st century, such as more ICT-based graphical content.