On Monday 18 July St Bede's teachers utilised the pupil free day to analyse student assessment data and to commence planning mathematics programs for Semester 2. The assessment data clearly indicates individual and collective strengths and focus areas.

Our mathematics practices are based in the Science of Learning including cognitive load theory, interleaving (spacing out review questions) and retreaval practice developing automaticity (remembering and accessing).

There are 3 elements of each mathematics program at St bede's:

Daily Review

Research clearly indicates that review should be systematically planned and incorporated into the instructional program. Daily review is a focus on the mathematical skills that have previously been taught. Long term retention is best served if questions on a particular skill are spread out in time, rather than concentrated within a short interval. Review immediately after instruction consolidates the ideas from that instruction, while delayed review aids in the relearning of forgotten material.

Review promotes continuity and helps students to attain a more comprehensive view of the mathematical topics covered. It helps them summarise main ideas, develop generalisations, and get an overall view of what they have been learning. Review helps students to assimilate or consolidate what they have learned, enabling them to fit ideas into new patterns and also serves as a diagnostic tool, revealing weaknesses and strengths to students and teachers. It helps teachers identify what is already known and what is not yet known; then reteaching can be planned.

Further, review assures that the prerequisites needed for learning new content have been mastered and adds to students' confidence in their ability to move successfully to new mathematical topics.

Heavy Lifting Lessons

These are the explicit teaching lessons that deliver concepts and introduce students to new concepts and skills. These lessons are designed to go deeper in the learning, establishing real world connections and provide feedback for both the teacher and student. 

Explicit teaching practices, including the effective use of feedback, are key elements of effective teaching. Such practices ensure that students have a clear understanding of why they are learning something, how it connects to what they already know, what is expected of them, and how to do it (explicit teaching). They also ensure that students are given opportunities to ask questions and get clear feedback about their performance against learning outcomes (effective feedback).

Cognitive load theory provides theoretical and empirical support for explicit models of instruction. The research demonstrates that for novice learners, explicit instruction, incorporating direct guidance accompanied by practice and feedback, is more effective than partial guidance.

Inquiry lessons

In inquiry lessons teachers use questions, problems and scenarios to help students learn through individual thought and investigation. Instead of simply presenting facts, the teacher encourages students to talk about a problem and draw on their intuition to understand it. Inquiry-based learning also focuses on letting students ask their own questions — essentially providing their own inquiry. Student led questions follow teacherguided inquiry.