Category: Concentration on procedures

Scenario: Maeve discussing the use of formal standard algorithms Country: UK Grade (student age): Pre-service teacher Contributed by: Gwen Ineson, Brunel University, UK Context – professional The session described below took place in week five of a one year postgraduate teacher training programme.  Trainees had not completed either of their sustained school experiences but they had undertaken an observation period of two weeks in primary classrooms as preparation for the course.  They had received 14 hours of mathematics input, which included an overview of the national curriculum, planning and assessment as well as subject knowledge relating to calculation, measures and shape. A feature of the course is the strong emphasis on a range of calculation approaches for the number operations. It would be useful to explain what is in the…

Scenario: Eleanor discussing approaches to helping pupils solve a multiplication problem Country: UK Grade (student age): Primary Contributed by: Gwen Ineson, Brunel University, UK Context – professional Eleanor was at the end of her one year graduate pre-service teacher training course and had completed all of her sustained school experience.  She was interviewed at the end of her programme about her approaches to calculation and about her approaches to teaching calculation.  The scenario below involves the multiplication of 2-digit numbers. Scenario Eleanor was asked what her approach would be to help pupils working on multiplication of 2-digit numbers.  The specific examples are 52 x 34 and 3.4 x 4.9. Interviewer:     What strategies would you use to teach your pupils to solve the following problem: 52 multiplied by 34?   Eleanor:…