Policy Enactment in Primary Mathematics 05 December 2017 Nicholas - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Policy Enactment in Primary Mathematics 05 December 2017 Nicholas Wollaston UCL Institute of Education Interview #108: A teacher positions herself in relation to policy

Analysis of “ Interview #108” Present at ion Overview • A bit about me: PhD Student/ Research Officer • Theory: Policy Enactment and Maths Education • Methodology: How did I analyse? • Findings: The teacher draws on four areas of discourse in accounting for her practice • Evaluation: What worked, and what didn’t?

A bit about Me • Former Primary Teacher and School Leader • MRes Student at IoE (Full time) ▫ Teaching of Subtraction in two Primary Schools • PhD Student at IoE (Part time) ▫ Teaching of Calculation in Primary Schools in England since Liz Truss criticised the Grid Method • Research Officer at IoE (Part time) ▫ KS2 Maths Test Preparation Project

KS 2 Maths Test Preparation Proj ect • High stakes testing and its consequences • New National Curriculum in 2014 • Changes to KS2 SATs in 2016 • Interviews with 30 Y6 teachers (24 schools) ▫ Spring/ Summer 2015: before the new NC for Y6 ▫ Summer 2016: After the new tests in Y6 • How do teachers say their teaching has changed since changes in the tests were introduced?

PhD: Discourse Theoretic Analysis • Policy as Text • Policy as Discourse (e.g. of ‘standards’) ▫ seeks to deny us a language to challenge the assumptions inherent within the discourse itself “Social Constructionist line [… ] taking policy as discourse as it basis. It makes us think about the ways in which we have been positioned to think of education in certain ways. It notes the mechanisms by which policy performs certain functions.” (Adams, 2014, p34)

Policy as Text? • Some texts are never read first hand ▫ 7% of maths teachers had never read any National Curriculum documents in a study of the Mathematics National Curriculum (Ball, 1993). • Head teachers are often key mediators of policy ▫ “Policies do not normally tell you what to do; they create circumstances in which the range of options available in deciding what to do are narrowed or changed.” (Ball, 1993, p12)

Policy as Discourse? • In professional decision-making, action is embedded in certain ways of seeing the world that stem from culture. • We therefore need to examine ▫ the uses of and effects of policy in relation to the influences ▫ ways in which policy is deployed professionally ▫ social conditions which have created the language used in the policy itself. (Adams, 2014, p34)

‘ Policy Enactment’ “An understanding that policies are interpreted and ‘translated’ by diverse policy actors in the school environment, rather than simply implemented.” (Braun et al., 2010, p549) “Policy enactment involves creative processes of interpretation and recontextualisation – that is, the translation through reading, writing and talking of text into action and the abstractions of policy ideas into contextualised practice.” (Braun et al., 2010, p549)

Policy Enactment Roles • Ball et al. (2011) suggest that teachers take up a variety of positions with regard to ‘enactment’ ▫ Narrators ▫ Entrepreneurs ▫ Transactors ▫ Enthusiasts ▫ Translators ▫ Critics ▫ Receivers

Research in Mathematics Education • Teaching Orientations ▫ transm ission , discovery , connectionist (Askew, Brown et al. 1997) • Mathematical Knowledge and Understanding ▫ Procedural , Conceptual (Hiebert & Lefevre, 1986) ▫ Relational, Instrum ental (Skemp, 1987) Number Sense requires Conceptual Knowledge (e.g. magnitude) and Relational Understanding (e.g. comparisons)

Theoretical Coding: Policy Enactment • Policy Implementation ▫ Expressing disquiet, Satisfaction, School policy. Government policy, Policy conflict, Reluctant compliance, Embracing change, Refusal • Policy Implementation Roles ▫ Narrator, Entrepreneur, Transactor, Enthusiast, Translator, Critic, Receiver • Performativity ▫ High stakes testing, pressure, results, good teacher • Teacher Role ▫ Curriculum implementation, Test preparation, Wider teaching role, Interviewee

Theoretical Coding: Maths Education • Teaching orientations ▫ Transmission, Discovery, Connectionist • Mathematical Understanding ▫ Procedural, Conceptual, Relational, Instrumental • Calculation Methods ▫ Mental Strategies, Repeated Addition, Grid Method, Extended Methods, Formal Written Algorithm, Progression in Calculation • Resources ▫ National Curriculum, NNS, Sample Papers, Old SATs papers, Commercial tests, Textbooks, Revision books, Other guidance material, Concrete Apparatus, Pictorial representations

Findings • Teacher draws on four main areas of discourse ▫ National Curriculum ▫ Other guidance e.g. NCETM website ▫ Ensuring mathematical understanding ▫ KS2 SATs • This presentation will focus on coding for ▫ Teaching orientations ▫ Mathematical knowledge and understanding

Findings: National Curriculum • Raised expectations • Cramming of new content • Teach ‘content’ far later in year • Delayed ‘revision’ programme “ We w ere still in a point though, this year, w hen w e w ere still teaching content after the Easter break. Now that is usually unheard of, you know , usually it’s very m uch you teach a heavy, heavy, heavy, bulk of your num ber, calculation and things like that, and usually from the February half-term , or even just a few w eeks after the Easter break is your revision. And w e w eren’t in that position this year, w e just w eren’t there.” (#108, p21)

Findings: National Curriculum • Move from preferred connectionist orientation to transmission • Suggests more instrumental rather than relational understanding “ Well w e alw ays go through at the very beginning, ensuring there w as a solid w ritten m ethod for each of the four operations. Of course these have been m ore form alised m ethods this year, so w e’ve bypassed, w here in previous years w e’d stay w ith chunking for exam ple, w e bypassed that and introduced long division, long m ultiplication, colum n addition and colum n subtraction are all pretty standard, com ing up through the school, so that’s been a change.” (#108, p2)

Findings: Other Guidance • NCETM et al. • Role of Maths Coordinator • Dissemination to other staff “ I’m m aths coordinator, so I’ve done a lot of research looking at actually how you can put that across using place value counters...” (#108, p2) “ OK. I m ean I’ve read various aspects of that, you know , so I m ean I m entioned the m astery docum ents from the NCETM, sort of introduced those as a guide for other m em bers of staff to look at use of it, so I suppose w e are aim ing to take it as a school…” (#108, p5)

Findings: Ensuring Understanding • Visualising and Conceptual Understanding • Connections • Multiplication • Fractions

Findings: Ensuring Understanding • She expresses a preference for teaching which helps children to visualise “ I think content w ise yes, so there’s been, looking at using the bar m ethod representations has been som ething that I’ve been trying to develop through the school […]. So that’s on-going and developing, it’s not a result of these tests, it’s a result of w anting children to actually have a depth of know ledge and understanding and for them to get it.” (#108, p18)

Findings: Ensuring Understanding • She values the connections between the various areas mathematics “ It’s being able, not only to do som ething, you know , there’s being able to carry it procedurally, there’s being able to carry out very form ulaic problem s if you like, but there’s that ability then to m ake those connections, I think, if you’ve m astered it, and m astery itself m eans you, the child is m aking connections betw een the different things that they’ve learnt…” (#108, p5)

Findings: Ensuring Understanding “ Where w e teach som ething, w e go back over it, w e revisit it, w e apply it to a problem , w e do a gap analysis, right this group needs to com e and w ork here, and it’s…w e’ve w orked in the sam e w ay in that essence, you know , so w e’ve taught it, w e’ve looked in books, how they achieve w ith the lesson, how do they feel about it, right, there are gaps here, let’s close it, there’s gaps there, w e need to intervene, you’ll com e out w ith m e on that Monday afternoon, you’ll go out w ith Ann, our learning support assistant, after lunch, you clearly just need ten m inutes to practice an extra tw o. ” (#108, p4) • Is this procedural or conceptual knowledge? • Is this a transmission approach, rather than a connectionist approach?

Findings: Ensuring Understanding • She talks about a ‘knowledge package’ (Ma, 1999) for multiplication ▫ place value ▫ related multiplication facts • She goes on to indicate that she values the use of equipment to support understanding, as children move from the more visual Grid Method to the more abstract formal algorithm.