An eye to improving primary maths education

Dr Lorraine Harbison is looking to improve how maths is taught in primary schools in Ireland. Spotlight on Research asks why is it such an important area?

“If children get a negative perception of maths in school at an early stage, they just switch off.

They no longer look on maths as something that is relevant in their lives and unfortunately achievement can rapidly decline.

But we need to be able to use maths every day to help us make sense of the world and to take a full and active part in navigating through daily tasks such as cooking, using money for shopping or bus fares, keeping an eye on our time throughout the day and seeing and interpreting maths all around us on road-signs, timetables, thermometers and in the shapes of buildings and nature.

It is such a shame when children see maths as nothing other than a dreary classroom subject confined within the walls of school and when even the thought of doing maths conjures up feelings of anxiety and fear.”

Do you think people sometimes just perceive maths as being tough?

“People tend to be reluctant to say that they have a difficulty with reading, but readily admit they are not good at maths, mainly because of their negative experiences of maths at school.

However, I have seen these same people work out complicated three-dimensional spatial and computational problems in their heads in a flash, so they are good at maths but they don’t know it!”

What kind of research have you been doing on maths education?

“I am working on an all island project called ‘Mind the Gap’ which captured the views from over 400 primary school teachers and nearly 250 secondary school teachers on how the transition in maths education at this critical stage for learners could be improved.

Interestingly, the main theme that emerged was a call for better opportunities for communication between teachers at both levels.”

How are you helping student teachers develop their maths teaching skills?

“Students are asked to reflect on their own beliefs about maths and maths education and address any ‘gremlins’ that they might have.

Support is also given on the use of technology tools like interactive whiteboards to help with maths teaching and learning as well as the use of ‘low-tech’ methods of visualising maths concepts and working with everyday materials in the classroom.”

What about the curriculum?

“Children learn in different ways, and not all engage well with the more traditional approaches of maths teaching. I think we can make the curriculum more accessible for all by focusing on the learner and adapting the curriculum and teaching approaches to suit.”

How do you think teachers today can help children to learn about maths?

“I think there can be too much of an emphasis in the classroom on speed, doing pages of sums and focusing on getting the correct answer.

I think it’s better to encourage children to have more of a feel for numbers and to use strategies such as estimation, and to not to be afraid of getting things wrong, but to have a try.

I would also encourage the use of approaches that require students to be actively involved in doing maths, working with their peers, using informal methods of solving problems and recording their solutions in ways that do not always necessitate the use of pencil-and-paper.

It can be a lot easier to guide and engage a child in their learning if they have to make their thinking visible through the use of language or showing you how they solved a problem using materials.”


And how about parents, how can they play a role?

“Maths can be a really taboo subject.

Parents feel that they are not able to help their child when they can’t do the maths themselves.

However, the most important thing is not to share negative views about maths and just to support their child in their learning in the same way that they might bring their child to football training and stand on the side of a freezing cold pitch in the rain on a Saturday morning.

Parents aren’t expected to ‘kit out and join in’ or ‘act as coach’. Simply sharing story books that have some mathematical content, playing games like snakes and ladders or involving their child in daily household activities that necessitate the use of maths can be really helpful.”

How did you become interested in this area?

“Maths tends to get a lot of bad press, in particular every year around the time of the Leaving Cert.

When I was studying for my doctorate in Newcastle upon Tyne, I became very interested in the notion of teaching for understanding and the myriad of formats in which understanding can be encouraged and assessed.

Being involved in curriculum development and working as a learning support teacher really helped to crystalise this thinking for me and fed into my work initially at the Church of Ireland College of Education in Rathmines and now, since Incorporation, at DCU’s Institute of Education.”

Has DCU’s recent Incorporation had an effect on your research?

“Yes, Incorporation has been the catalyst to research and implement a redesigned maths education curriculum and the opportunity to work with the B.Ed. students in the creation of rich mathematical experiences.

From my own perspective, it makes collaboration so much easier. I’m now working in a large Institution with a great team, and we are making big strides.”