Agency in Maths

“The illiterate of the twenty-first century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

Excerpt From: Spencer, John. “Empower: What Happens When Student Own Their Learning.” IMPress, LP, 2017-06-27T12:00:00+00:00. iBooks. 

For me, the journey of my sabbatical about 'Agency in Maths,' is summed up by this quote. For a child to have complete autonomy in their learning in maths, in reading or in writing, is in their ability to learn, unlearn and relearn.  It is not about the content of the knowledge & strategies that they learn along the way, but about their ability to learn, unlearn and relearn.  It is about the dispositions that they hold as LEARNERS.  It is these strategies, as learners, that will hold them in good stead in their lives. 

I have had many people say to me that agency is not possible with 5 year olds. Well, I completely disagree. It is at 5, if not before, that the dispositions of learning are shaped. What attitude each child has at 5 will shape the adult that they will become. 

What does the child do when they come against difficulty, what attitude do they have towards learning? 

This morning, Mel and I had a conversation about some of our MST learners, especially this second intake. It is the dispositions that are holding a lot of these students back - their attitude towards learning, in particular maths. They have learnt to opt out, they have learnt to 

How has this happened? Where does the blame lie?  Did these children have these dispositions at 5, before 5 or have they learnt to opt out since being at school?  Is it because we, as teachers are too nice?  Do we, in our caring and kindhearted way, let these kids 'feel good' rather than learn the dispositions of maths?

How do we enlighten our teachers? It is a very fine line between the empowerment of our students and tipping either way.  How do you get this right?  

We need educators to...
  • celebrate mistakes
  • make learning hard, but not too hard
  • facilitate powerful conversations 
etc...









Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Jo Boaler: Mathematical Mindsets

Production 2017

Jodie Hunter