I bet you've had a student say this to you
And how to turn that around.
Podcast is AI generated, and will make mistakes. Interactive transcript available in the podcast post.
Here are four real students with four genuine views on maths. I bet you’ve heard at least one of these before:
“I can always do it in class, but I can never remember in the exam.” - Lana
“I hate maths with a passion, I’m terrible at maths.” - Mia
“This is too easy.“ - Arjun
“I used to enjoy maths, but now it’s boring.“ - Harper
Here’s how those same students sound a few months later:
“I actually remembered everything. I got at least a 5!” - Lana
“Is that it? That’s easy!” - Mia
“So… is calculus moving between dimensions?“ - Arjun
“I have not enjoyed maths like this since I was in Year 2.“ - Harper
What changed?
Lana
Thanks to the hybrid-strand curriculum design, and its strategic retrieval, Lana started to remember everything.
This compounded over time to drastically improve her self-confidence and willingness to attempt every question.
Mia
Routine atomisation allowed Mia to feel comfortable with all of the constituent parts before being asked to complete a full routine. By the time we got to the full-chain for the routine she could do everything; so much so that it led her to think maths was now suddenly ‘easy.’
Arjun
Expansion sequences allow all pupils to experience the pinnacle of each atom, but high-attainers like Arjun especially thrive with them. Consistent retrieval also frees up working memory for top-level questions, and all of this combines to form new relational understandings of mathematical concepts. For Arjun, this led him to start asking exploratory questions that probed the limits of his current understanding.
Harper
The Penny Promise meant she was never embarrassed or defensive and instead was curious and interested. It also meant she had full faith in me as her teacher, a very valuable trait for learning.
All of these are features of the Unstoppable Learning system that I have been applying to my classroom with ever-increasing success over the past year.
Lee
Also, here is me, before:
“Around 80% is the goal, you can’t get everyone to understand everything”
And also me, today:
“I used to have low expectations. 100% is achievable, and is what I now expect every day.“
In my department, teaching is now intellectual and academic. Department meetings are buzzing with strategic conversations around pedagogy and philosophical conversations about mathematics. Where before I felt like every day was the same, and there wasn’t much more to learn, now, I am truly proud to be a teacher.
A couple of weeks ago, Lee and I spoke at ResearchED Bournemouth. If you haven’t read Lee’s speech yet, give it a read. If you have, read it again, it’s inspiring stuff.
On Saturday 21st we spoke again at MathsConf38. Lee updated and restructured his part of the talk, and the above is a succinct summary of his talk.
He mentions a few principles, techniques and frameworks that we haven’t covered yet on this Substack:
Strand Curriculum Design
Expansion Sequences
The Penny Promise
Strategic Action Over Time
We will have articles on all these in the future, so if you haven’t yet, subscribe now and we’ll let you know soon as they’re available.
If you like the chance to ask us questions directly, we’re next speaking at the Wellington Festival of Education, on Thursday 3rd July.
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