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Summary of Mathematics inside the black box by Jeremy Hodgen and Dylan Wiliam
work is judged. Peer and self-assessment are essential to this process as they promote
both active involvement and practice in making judgements about the quality of work
their own and of fellow pupils.
5 = Feedback should tell pupils how to improve. When feedback focuses on the student
as a good or bad achiever, emphasising overall judgement by marks or grades, it focuses
on the self (ego-involvement). Research has shown that this actually lowered performance
(Kluger and DeNisi, 1996), therefore performance would have been higher had no
feedback been given! Such feedback discourages the low attainers and makes the high
attainers avoid tasks of they cant see their way to success, for failure would be seen as
bad news about themselves rather than as an opportunity to learn.
When feedback is focused not on the person but on the strengths and weaknesses of the
piece of work (task-involvement) and what needs to be done to improve, performance is
enhanced especially if feedback includes ideas about HOW to improve. Such feedback
encourages all pupils, whatever their past achievements, that they can do better by trying
and that they can learn from mistakes and failures (Dweck, 1999).
These principles make substantial demands on teachers subject knowledge, not
only to make sense of what pupils say but also to be able to determine what would
be the most appropriate next steps for the pupil. This is not abstract knowledge
gained from e.g. a degree but rather a profound understanding of fundamental
mathematics (Ma, 1999).
Classroom dialogue
Through talking, exploring and unpacking mathematics, pupils can begin to see for
themselves what they know and how well they know it. By listening and interacting,
teachers can provide feedback on ways to improve their learning.
Implementing such an approach is a complex activity that involves the following aspects:
1 = Challenging activities that promote thinking and discussion
- the obvious answer is not always correct (encourages pupils to defend their
ideas)
Which of these statements is true?
A = 0.33 is bigger than 1/3
B = 0.33 is smaller than 1/3
C = 0.33 is equal to 1/3
D = You need more information to be sure
All of these answers are to some degree correct and justifiable. The problem
provides an opportunity to differentiate between different levels of understanding of place
value and equivalence.
Challenges must be directed at a wide range of ability and achievement levels
providing an opportunity for pupils to learn from each other.
Challenges must be set so that increasing ability and achievement does not
necessarily increase a pupils likelihood of getting a correct answer (must be accessible
to all and have a range of answers)
- using what we know about pupils mathematical understanding (asking a
question can focus pupils attention on what they need to do to improve their
understanding e.g. what is confusing about the problem?)
Summary of Mathematics inside the black box by Jeremy Hodgen and Dylan Wiliam
The mathematics curriculum is content-heavy. There is a lot to learn and limited time
in which to learn it. As a result, even successful pupils can have difficulties with relatively
simple ideas in new or unusual contexts.
- problems with more (or less) than one correct answer (pupils generally expect
mathematical problems to have one and only one correct answer but there may be more
than one or no answer!)
In what ways could this sequence be continued: 1, 2, 4....... (e.g. 7, 11... or 8, 16...)
Draw a triangle with sides 4cm, 6cm and 11cm
- generating mathematical structure (Identifying similarities and differences can
enable pupils to begin to generate mathematical structures for themselves e.g. giving
children different sums on cards and asking them to sort them into groups why have
they chosen them to be similar/different?)
- closed questions can sometimes be valuable
- generating different solutions
Often we give students the message that school mathematics is about getting
answers to problems, whereas our actual aim is to enable them to learn mathematics.
Asking pupils to generate different ways of solving a problem is one way of focusing their
attention on the process of mathematics. Knowing one solution can help pupils generate
and understand another, and this can enable them to understand the connections
between different mathematical areas.
- mistakes are often better for learning then correct answers
Children can be given a set of calculations (with answers) and asked to identify
which are correct or incorrect. In addition to helping some children identify mistakes they
make, it focuses the children on the process rather than the outcome. Mistakes must be
valued in the classroom.
- using textbooks
Pupils could be asked to identify four questions from a textbook, two which they
consider easy and two difficult. They could construct model answers to the easy
questions individually and with a partner for the hard questions. Discussion and
questioning must go hand in hand with this and opportunities for pupils to learn from each
other promoted.
- using summative tests formatively
Analyse gaps, give the children the mark scheme and ask them to construct model
full mark answers, pupils identify easy and hard questions and work together to solve,
work in pairs to complete the test, in pairs make a harder test and mark scheme........
- good problems are not universal
Not all activities will work with all children at all times. They are dependent on the
existing knowledge of the children and must engage them.
Bexley Primary Mathematics Team
Summary of Mathematics inside the black box by Jeremy Hodgen and Dylan Wiliam
Summary of Mathematics inside the black box by Jeremy Hodgen and Dylan Wiliam