Anyone Can Smash Maths - Introduction

Having taught secondary Mathematics for almost 10 years, I have now heard in abundance stories from my colleagues, friends, pupils, and parents about how they have never understood Maths and never will.

I have a love/hate relationship with these stories. I love hearing them so that I can ensure I don't repeat the same mistakes with my classes and pupils but I hate that these storied are still commonplace in 2020!

More often than not when you unpick these stories it comes down to the messages they have received during their Maths lessons, from their teacher, their peers, or even at home from their parents. Some of the stories involve messages that were not explicit and were formed purely by an absent-mindedness of the impact e.g. a parent saying "don't worry if you don't understand Maths, I never did!". But some of the stories have an even nastier edge e.g the teacher who wrote "Dummy" on a test paper and the teacher who only talked to the pupils who were "proper mathematicians" in lessons!

Both Jennifer Wathall and Jo Boaler discuss these damaging experiences that Maths learners go through in their books Concept-Based Mathematics (Wathall), Limitless Mind (Boaler), and Mathematical Minds (Boaler). Wathall shares my above experience too "Whenever I am in a social situation and tell someone I am a maths teacher, I receive one of two reactions: anxiety alongside alarming panic, with people expressing how much they hated math and school; and the less common response - how much they loved maths".

I aim in everything I do as a Maths educator and leader to eradicate these messages and experiences that lead pupils to feel that they cannot learn Maths. I genuinely believe and uphold the vision that anyone can smash Maths!

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Over the next year or so, I am going to write a blog series that unpicks this vision by answering the following questions:

• Anyone can smash Maths - part 1: How do we know that all pupils can "smash" Maths?

• How do we help all pupils truly believe that they can "smash" Maths?

• How can we redefine what great learning in Maths looks like?

• What strategies can we use in our lessons to ensure all pupils can "smash" Maths?

• How do we work with other educators who don't share this view?

When it comes to messages we give our pupils during Maths lessons or about Maths we must ensure they know we believe that they can achieve!

If we don't genuinely believe our pupils can achieve whatever they dream of achieving why are we educators?

Update 2021: I had originally planned to continue this blog and write it the following posts during 2020. However, following the huge upheaval caused by COVID adjusting to online learning took priority!

Watch this space for the next few posts!