Investigating sustained NDP practice

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Investigating sustained NDP practice

• Dr Fiona EllUniversity of Auckland

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• What is the nature of the organisational dynamic
  operating in schools that sustain the numeracy
  development?

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How can we see this?

• Practice framed by systems
• Desired change at the level of teachers and
  children
• What supports ongoing quality practice in
  teaching numeracy within a school?

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2005 study

• Three levels documentation and resourcing (lead
  teacher interviews, collecting materials),
  teacher interviews and video of lessons.
• Participants two schools urban, contributing,
  20 teachers rural, full, 7 teachers
• Five teachers at each school lead teacher and
  four others
• Two teachers at each school volunteered to be
  videoed (selection issues)

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Summary from 2005 study

• The two schools had contrasting approaches to
  sustaining the project at a school level
• The teacher interviews confirmed the importance
  of adequate resourcing and the support of peers
  and lead teachers
• Videoed lessons suggest that confident teachers
  are continuing to use superficial programme
  elements as a framework for continuing to explore
  children's thinking
• Further work on sharing of strategies and
  refinement of strategies may be of benefit to
  these teachers

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2006 study

• Participants two schools urban, contributing,
  20 teachers rural, full, 7 teachers
• Two Intermediate schools one Auckland, one
  Waikato

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Participants

• City School
• Two teachers - interview and video of a class
  lesson
• One of the teachers had been interviewed the
  previous year

• Country School
• Six teachers interviewed
• Two teachers videoed same teachers as last year

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What does it mean to sustain?

• Maintain and sustain
• Ongoing development and increase in skill rather
  than wearing off or reverting
• Staff continue to question, to engage with
  numeracy, to be excited about their teaching of
  mathematics

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Top Down and Bottom Up

• Contrast between City School and Country School
  in implementation
• Country School has now done policy and formalised
  assessment procedures and the sharing of data /
  setting of targets
• City School has continued to focus on supporting
  staff who are new to the project and on
  resourcing the teaching of numeracy.
  (whiteboards)

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City School Themes

• Interest in numeracy teaching and learning has
  continued
• Staff turnover, training and support
• Simplification of processes
• Integrated curriculum

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City School

• New staff involved in NDP contract
• Revised their assessment procedures and recording
  requirements for teachers simplification
• Lead teacher doing observations and class visits
  to colleagues peer support
• Staff turnover a challenge training profile

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City School

• Issues for the new teacher
• Children deviating from the suggested script with
  ideas that are conceptually quite difficult
• coming to grips with actually explaining
• Managing effective group rotations

• Issues for the experienced teacher
• Finding manageable ways to get teachers to plan,
  assess and report
• Teaching the parents and getting them on board
• Fitting NDP into an integrated curriculum approach

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Country School - Themes

• Interest in numeracy teaching and learning has
  continued
• Planning meeting children's needs
• Strands
• Being creative and generative

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Country School - Planning

• Five of the six teachers mentioned planning as
  the hardest part of continuing the project
• They reported spending half an hour to an hour a
  day planning maths alone
• Planning issues linked to issues about creativity
  and being generative

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Planning

• At least half an hour a day just thinking
  aboutyes, we are doing this and how am I going
  to teach it and what activity am I going to have
  to support for that group, then the next group
  that is their activity and the game thats going
  to help them support what they learnt and then
  the third group I mean really I think you plan
  six sessions at once and I find that really hard.
  Sometimes you think oh no and I think you have
  to plan it or it goes to pieces and it doesnt
  work.
• Teacher D

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Planning

• I am not sure whether planning is the right word
  either, its just knowing where to go from here
  to there and if they have been on that level for
  a month, whats a different thing I can do that I
  haven't done before that is still teaching the
  same strategy or the same knowledge. There isnt
  a book that says start here and keep going and
  youll be finewith the juniors you can do today
  we will use cars and tomorrow we will sue teddy
  bears so the kids dont know they are learning
  the same thing, but with the seniors you cant do
  that.

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Planning

• I have found that the planning of maths has
  become so onerousif you had asked me three years
  ago what subject would I most like to give away
  it would not have been maths abut now it is,
  simply because of the planning. Everyday you have
  to think where are we at today and where are we
  going tomorrow and its just huge and I expect it
  to be getting less and its notI can relate to
  schools and individual teachers that have said
  this is too much. I can relate to that. Im not
  saying anyone here would do that, and I certainly
  wouldnt do that but I can understand, and if I
  hear someone say that I dont knock them down, I
  think, OK, well I understand where you are coming
  from.
• Teacher A

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Country School - Strands

• PAT profile strands lagging behind number
  knowledge number knowledge for children who had
  attended Country School was very sound
• Decided to do blocks of strand work in 2006 in
  2005 had not addressed how to do this

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Strands

• Two teachers on video taught measurement
• Lesson features warm up number games, use of
  scrapbooks, grouping based on pre-test results,
  small group strategy teaching, questioning,
  pair-sharing, active exploration by independent
  groups
• Change from previous practice

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Strands

• I love the numeracy project but then I think
  maybe it doesnt incorporate the other strands.
  We just stopped and did a four week block on
  measurement and I find now that I have to get
  back into the numeracy project all of a
  suddenthey could blend in because you know
  measurement is all counting and doing things like
  that but its quite separate.
• Teacher F newly trained in NDP

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Strands

• We have reconsidered our policy at the school
  here to ensure that we get coverage of the
  strands. In saying that they have to know the
  number strand and I think strand teaching is
  basically teaching vocab. I did a test on the
  children and they had to measure the perimeter of
  something. Because they didnt know the perimeter
  they got it wrong. Teach them the word perimeter
  and they can add the numbers together or multiply
  them so they still have their number knowledge.
  Its just getting them to transfer what they know
  into different aspects of their daily lives.
• Teacher D, experienced in NDP.

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Country School Generating new Ideas

• The role of the resource in sustaining the
  project
• Initial task framed as coming to terms with the
  resource - relying on the book.
• Concern over time about repetition, boredom,
  needing more material, not knowing how to make
  things up that fit

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Summary

• Both schools are continuing to engage with
  numeracy as a key focus
• Both schools still have staff involved in
  training
• City School interviews and observations highlight
  the challenges of having a larger staff and
  keeping everyone going, but also the benefits of
  experts and novices within the same school
• Country School interviews and observations reveal
  planning and generating ideas as key concerns for
  teachers. Consideration of other strands has been
  a focus for this school.