St Mary’s was a hub of activity recently when the College hosted its first “Introduction to Mastery” event.
BEd students from Years 3 and 4, along with PGCE students, enjoyed a challenging afternoon learning the principles in “Maths Mastery”.
The Mastery curriculum is inspired by system of teaching maths in Singapore, a country which has consistently been listed amongst the highest-achieving international performers in mathematics education.
Students were introduced to the concepts of the Mastery curriculum:
• Whole-class teaching,
• All pupils being taught the same concepts at the same time,
• Small group work that provides challenge through greater depth for the advanced learners and support
with grasping concepts and methods for struggling learners,
• “Variation” in set exercises as “intelligent practice”,
• Same topic/method/concept approach but with variation in how the questions are presented,
• Questions that expose the underlying concept or mathematical structure to make pupils think deeply for
themselves.
• All pupils being taught the same concepts at the same time,
• Small group work that provides challenge through greater depth for the advanced learners and support
with grasping concepts and methods for struggling learners,
• “Variation” in set exercises as “intelligent practice”,
• Same topic/method/concept approach but with variation in how the questions are presented,
• Questions that expose the underlying concept or mathematical structure to make pupils think deeply for
themselves.
The event was sponsored by “Maths—No Problem”, the producers of the only government-approved textbook for teaching Mastery in the United Kingdom. On their first training session in Northern Ireland, “Maths—No Problem” generously sponsored students by giving each one a set of resources, and they have promised to return for future career and professional development events for students and schools.
