Conversations with my colleagues have been different this year compared to last year; a brand new curriculum document, and structured maths programs have meant that a lot of us are still in the learning stages too - having to familiarise ourselves with new pedagogies, vocabulary, and realising that there is a great of work to cover before our students can perform at the expected level under the new curriculum.
What has not changed is the common struggle; our students are struggling to solve word problems independently. I have discussed this with colleagues in the junior and senior school and with CoL colleagues working at secondary level and it a common thread with students in our schools.
They have been taught the strategies, can apply them in supported environments, can solve linear problems very easily, however when the problems add multiple steps, or are phrased in a way which challenges students ability to comprehend or infer the obvious path to solving the problem they are unable to apply their known strategies confidently.
Let's look at some examples taken from the Pr1me Practice Books
Example Question One:
A shopkeeper has 378 apples, and 53 oranges. How many apples and oranges does the shopkeeper have altogether?
Straightforward. Linear problem solving. Clear numbers of objects, clear scenario, and a key word which indicates to the students clearly which operation/strategy they need to apply. The reality of problem solving in questions like this is that problems like this do not require much of a problem to be solved. The question is a straightforward story, no twists, no turns, just straightforward combining of two numbers to find a total.
The very next question:
After selling 185 muffins, a bakery had 269 muffins left. How many muffins did the bakery have at first?
Questions like this require students to understand the story of the problem before they are able to even think of which strategy to apply. The question requires the same mathematical strategy, it is just simple addition, right? 185 + 269 = 454 - however this problem caused confusion, and I wondered why.
I have a hunch, I'll talk about it in the next blog post. Stay tuned to see how we address this.
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