PiXL Maths Festival - March 2024
"I don't expect, and I don't want, all children to find mathematics an engrossing study, or one that they want to devote themselves to either in school or in their lives. Only a few will find mathematics seductive enough to sustain a long term engagement. But I would hope that all children could experience at a few moments in their careers ... the power and excitement of mathematics ... so that at the end of their formal education they at least know what it is like and whether it is an activity that has a place in their future."
David Wheeler
Presentation slides
Guiding principles that inform the work of NRICH
Value a Growth Mindset (Carol Dweck)
Key messages:
Everyone can make progress
It’s ok to make mistakes - learning is a messy business
There’s always help at hand but we still expect students to do the thinking
Celebrate resourcefulness and resilience ("Yet")
Tilted Squares
What's Possible?
Kite in a Square
Maths is for all
Key messages:
Tap into students' curiosity: "What questions are bubbling up for you?"
All students have the right to shine and all have the right to struggle
Low Threshold / High Ceiling tasks offer accessible starting points and extension opportunities
The Number Jumbler
Got It
Treasure Hunt
Allow time for exploration and discussion
Key messages:
Start with an engaging problem/context and then build on students' ideas (Wigley article)
Offer students opportunities for collaboration and the sharing of ideas
Think-pair-share / Convince yourself, convince a friend, convince others...
Got It
The Number Jumbler
What's Possible?
Tilted Squares
Encourage multiple strategies / representations
Key messages:
Appreciating the connections between multiple representations strengthens students' understanding
We publish students' solutions to our tasks, to draw attention to the range of possible ways in which students have tackled our problems.
"If I'm having to remember..., then I'm not working on mathematics" Hewitt
The Number Jumbler
What's Possible?
What's it Worth?
Mixing Lemonade
Offer students the opportunity to go on mathematical journeys
Key messages:
Exploring, noticing patterns, conjecturing, generalising, justifying, and proving, are at the heart of mathematical thinking.
Working mathematically requires more than just conceptual understanding and procedural fluency - rope model.
Got It
What's Possible?
Treasure Hunt
The Number Jumbler
Tilted Squares and the recording of a lesson
Links to resources to support teachers
Consider becoming a Problem-solving School
Recommended reading:
Mindset: How you can fulfil your potential by Carol S Dweck
Mathematical Mindsets: Unleashing Students' Potential Through Creative Mathematics, Inspiring Messages and Innovative Teaching by Jo Boaler
Outliers: The Strory of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
Mathematics for Human Flourishing by Francis Su
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"A teacher of mathematics has a great opportunity. If he fills his allotted time with drilling his students in routine operations he kills their interest, hampers their intellectual development, and misuses his opportunity. But if he challenges the curiosity of his students by setting them problems proportionate to their knowledge, and helps them to solve their problems with stimulating questions, he may give them a taste for, and some means of, independent thinking."
Polya, G. (1945) How to Solve it