At NEPS we believe that a teaching and learning philosophy is central to supporting the academic achievements of all students.
It is understood that a teaching and learning philosophy is an essential and active element of a school and its staff and that a shared philosophy is powerful, as it directs and guides a school’s teaching practices in the classroom as well as how teaching and learning is perceived by the students.
NEPS has worked hard over the past 2 years to develop a strong evidence-based Teaching Philosophy for Learning Numeracy.
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY FOR LEARNING NUMERACY
Maths lessons
ANTICIPATE THE LESSON (Planning for Learning)
When preparing and planning for what is being taught, teachers use assessment data to
select specific learning goals, decide success criteria that students will be able to work
towards attaining, and choose learning tasks that will enable students to say, make, do
and/or write to produce evidence of their skills, knowledge and understandings.
Ways of prompting the learning are decided as well as specific questions, including enabling
and extending prompts. Student responses are anticipated based on student knowledge of
strategies and prior learning.
Resources are selected and consideration is given as to how students will represent their
thinking. This includes the selection of the image or text used for the number talk at the
beginning of the lesson.
Every effort will be made to include hands on learning opportunities that allow students to
deepen their thinking as the lesson progresses, and for students to make links to their
everyday life.
The NEPS Numeracy Vision is used as an overarching guide when planning for lessons.
NUMBER TALK
Number talks engage students in mathematical thinking. They are used as a review of prior
concepts taught, or as an introduction to the planned lesson. They provide opportunities for
student thinking to be shared with peers and teachers.
LAUNCH THE LESSON
This part of the lesson invites students to be curious about the learning. The aim is to make
the students familiar with the lesson context through discussion, or a teacher led content
related learning task, which enables students to begin to plan strategies and solution paths
without being explicitly instructed which to select by the teacher.
EXPLORE THE LESSON
Students have individual think time before working independently, or collaboratively, to
complete learning tasks which should include an opportunity for students to be involved in
hands on activities.
They demonstrate persistence and a willingness to take risks in their learning.
It is a time for students to practice skills and strategies they have previously learnt. Students
create work samples for sharing that they have recorded from their investigations.
Teachers interact with students, making observations and monitoring their response to the
set task. It is a time when enabling and extending prompts/supports are used to support
student learning and engagement.
Students have opportunities to demonstrate resilience and build their confidence as they
progress through the work.
SUMMARISE / REVIEW THE LESSON
Work samples are shared and students are supported to explain their solutions and
strategies. If needed, restating is used for clarification and accuracy.
It is a time to connect mathematical ideas, stimulate student thinking and build
understandings, allowing students to deepen their knowledge of the key mathematical
points the lesson is focussing on.
RE-LAUNCH THE LESSON (in the next or same lesson)
A different, but related, task is posed to consolidate learning from the first task. It is a little
the same and a little different. Students are encouraged to apply reasoning and extend
learning from the first task. This allows for deepening of knowledge already learnt.
RE-EXPLORE THE LESSON
This part of the lesson uses the same approach as the previous exploration of the original
task. Select new work samples to share (preferably different students). The teacher
acknowledges students who have applied new learning and new or more sophisticated
strategies from previous discussions. It is expected that students will show evidence of how
they have applied reasoning and used problem solving strategies.
RE-SUMMARIZE / RE-REVIEW THE LESSON
Teachers use the same approach as for the review of the initial task, emphasizing overall
learning and anticipating how the new knowledge might be used in the future. It is also a
time for students to share links between the learning and everyday life.
MATHS GAME
A fun game to finish the lesson that activates students’ mental recall of facts. The game
does not have to be related to the lesson. Its aim is to re-expose students to known facts (+
– x ÷, place value or applied knowledge) to embed these in long term memory, allowing for
easy recall when needed in other learning or everyday life tasks.
BRAIN BREAKS
Student-centred, regulatory activities to ready the brain for learning. These activities are
short 2-3minutes and focus on supporting students to regain/maintain a focus on learning.
Brain breaks are layered throughout the learning session and implemented as needed