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Raising standards with 32 Maths Hubs and help from China

Thursday, 10 July 2014

The DfE has announced a network of 32 "Maths Hubs" in a bid to improve maths education in the UK. They, along with Chinese teachers, will bring in a new style of teaching and learning to emulate the achievements of the top East Asian nations.  

The programme, coordinated by NCETM and Shangai Normal University, will bring up to 60 Chinese maths teachers here to give masterclasses at the new 'hubs'.

The NCETM says:

 " Each 
hub will seek to ensure that all schools and colleges in its area have access to high quality support for mathematics education that is relevant to their specific needs.

In order to do this, the hubs will:


Maths hubs
•  identify needs and agree priorities for support in their area. This could involve pro-active surveying of schools; responding to requests and referrals; and considering the implications of national evidence                                          
 
•  co-ordinate a range of high quality specialist mathematics support to address the needs. This could include communicating existing support and extending its reach; commissioning external organisations to provide bespoke support; developing and enabling new forms of support and collaboration
 
•  critically evaluate the quality and impact of the support provided. This could include gathering immediate, medium-term and long-term feedback from participants engaging with support; and more detailed evaluative research used to test innovations."



 

 The DfE's press release stated this about the 'hubs':

" These ‘pace-setters’ will implement the Asian-style mastery approach to maths which has achieved world-leading success - with children in these jurisdictions often around 2 years ahead of English children by age 15."





Most teachers will be on board with any measure that improves teaching and learning for their children and welcome the chance to consider best practise in primary mathematics teaching. It will interesting to see the development of these hubs and the impact they have on our schools and performance.



There is always a concern however with international comparisons and when you look closely at the results other issues can he highlighted. 

A report in  2013 looked in detail at the ‘The mathematics skills of school children : How does England compare to high performing East Asian jurisdictions?' 

It found two interesting results:


1. Our average 10 year olds aren’t doing so well.  There is a gap between our average 10 year olds and the average 10 year olds from top performing countries.
 
2. Our high attaining 10 year olds are achieving as well as those from top performing countries.
However, by age 16 the able from other countries are ahead by 2 years.
 
My interpretation on this is, if primary teachers are getting the highest attaining pupils to the same level as the best in the world – surely the recommendation should be to seek to understand this good practice and extend it into secondary schools and, if it is appropriate, see what can be learnt from this to develop ‘average’ and lower attaining pupils at the primary stage.
 
The number of these maths hubs led by secondary schools far outweigh the minor primary influence. 

One other notable factor in many high performing countries, not just in East Asia, is the quality and status of teachers. Often teachers are encouraged to research as well as teach and they have greater social status with high earnings compared to teachers in England.
 
This again, is where we often get mixed messages   -  teachers are encourage to complete Masters level qualifications, but also some schools, academies and free schools, can employ unqualified teachers.
 
 
Then of course there are the social factors and cultural differences. Part of the conclusion of this report states:
 
            ‘it is actually what happens outside of school that is driving these countries to superior PISA and TIMSS math test performance.’ 
 
Parental involvement (or pressure?), private tuition and a willingness to spend money on their children’s education all help boost test scores.
 

Related articles:

Comparing maths test scores - how do we get closer to high performing E Asian countries?
Our able 10 year olds achieve as well as those from the top countires.

Mathematics : made to measure
Recommendations on how to improve maths teaching and learning. 

Do we need qualifications to teach?
Gove says academies, as well as free schools, can hire unqualified teachers.
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