Trialing of MiC

• Trialed with lower and middle groups in Year7 (grade 6)

• The focus was on Fractions, Decimals and Percentages. One unit of algebra but not completed by time of the evaluation

• I have extensive experience using materials in England

Evaluation Methodology

• Compare changes (added value) in profile of students from Year 6 to 7 using KS2 Maths Assessment taken in Year 6 and PIM in Year 7.

• Compare the profile of students from year 7 (2014) with MiC students in 2015 using a difficult test based around proportional reasoning

• Views of students and teachers via a questionnaire and interviews

Standarised Test

• Students did not work to the syllabus related to the standarised test

• Assessment is called Progress in Mathematics developed by NFER

CHHS

• All students (2014 versus 2015)

• All students (2015) versus sets 2 and 3 (2015)

England’s Measure of progressIts supposed to be 2 sublevels but

Previous Attainment matters

MiC groups

Added value for MiC groups was 3.5 sublevels

JGHS

Scores in 2014 versus 2015

• All versus set 2 (2015)

Set 3 versus set 2

MiC

• Added value from Year 6 to Year 7 for set 3 is about 2.4 sublevels

• Added value from Year 6 to 7 for students at level 3 or below is 3.1 sublevels

Baseline TestProportional Reasoning

Both Schools

Question correct Set 1 % correct Set 2 % correctSet 3

2014 2015 2014 2015 2014 20151 38 41 0 42 0 82 30 34 5 8 0 73 57 67 29 49 18 334 43 47 5 19 0 55 80 81 42 64 23 546 47 55 11 8 5 127

70

60 24

32 13 7

8 35 26 13 28 3 109 52 49 4 21 0 510 55 70 35 45 5 4811 13 11 2 4 0 212

17

11 2

4 0

0

13 32 29 4 15 3 7Mean score 44% 45% 14% 26% 5% 15%

Working TowardsEssentially looking for some evidence that, although getting the question

wrong, are showing evidence of understanding some of the concepts

Question % Working towardsSet 1

% Working towardsSet 2

% Working towardsSet 3

2014 2015 2014 2015 2014 20151 45 30 67 70 60 802 17 14 14 22 8 233 4 5 6 7 6 5 13 8 237 8 9 10 38 % one

part correct 33% one

part correct 11 12 23 13 4 9 0 313 10 37 9 43 0 31

Working Towards

Q1 Recognise that ¾ is greater than ½ and 1/3 is less than ½ Q2 Recognise dividing into 3 parts and/or 4m is four lengthsQ6 Using the bar to gauge the answerQ10 Getting one part correctQ12 Recognise the need to divide into equal partsQ13 Recognise the need to add the tip to the bill

Examples of student solutions

Q 11Set 2

Set 1

Set 2

ExampleSet 3

Set 3

Set 3

Q1one glass is full, other is full

set 2

Set 2

Set 2

Students Views strongly agree strongly disagreeI enjoyed using the Mathematics in Context books 1 2 3 4 35 45 13 7I think my understanding of maths has improved this year

42 48 7 3I like discussing maths in the classroom

40 33 22 7I like coming to the board to explain

37 26 19 19I think I learn a lot from others explaining

36 33 17 14I think we should continue to use Mathematics in Context next Year

43 33 7 17I think fraction bars and percentage bars help me understand the maths

36 38 18 9

You realise there is a different way of doing it to yours and it might be easier

I wish you could see my year 6 maths book. I tore so many pages out and I kept writing “I hate maths” in the book

One student said “maths is all around us” and showed me a packet of potato chips to illustrate his points. The other students agreed enthusiastically that he was right and that understanding mathematics was therefore really important.

Positives from Observations

• Teachers are far more interactive• Students tend to buy into contexts• Greater sense that teachers are aware of

students thinking• Many students like talking about their thinking• The set 3 teachers were really disappointed

with the test results!

Issues from Observations

• Still a desire to formalise• Still a desire to push the content too far• Teachers still need to develop some interactive

and organisational skills (tell me what he said? what do you think about that?, students working in groups before whole class)

• Teachers miss some “obvious” opportunities • Recognise when to move on. Teachers tend to

overdo the whole class discussion

• Perhaps the hardest aspect of this is recognising that what students learn in a lesson is not a predictor of what they will know in a few weeks. So teachers tend to be over-optimistic about the outcomes

• Related to the above, what students know in a particular context does not transfer to more formal situations easily

Some of the Parts

Contexts

Formal. Abstract.

World of Maths

Submarine Sandwiches

Fruit Tape

Ship-wrecked

Recipes Cutting up food

Popu-lation Bar

Equivalence, addition ...

Racing Distances

Some of the Parts

“Informal”“Models of”

Contexts

“Pre-formal” “Models for”

Formal. Abstract.

World of Maths

Fraction Bar

Submarine Sandwiches

Fraction Bar

Fruit Tape

Fraction Bar

Ship-wrecked

Ratio Table

Recipes

Double Fraction

Bar

Cutting up food

Popu-lation Bar

Double Fraction

Bar

Making Sense Recognising Similarity

Number Line, Ratio Table

Equivalence, addition ...

Fraction Bar & Ratio Table

Racing Distances

Next Year

• Continue with MiC into Year 8 with current students

• Continue with MiC with lower and middle Year 7 students but introduce a whole number module for set 3

• Introduce MiC algebra and area and volume for top set Year 7

• Trial MiC for Year 7 in Cayman Brac