Mathematics Programmes of Study: INSET for Key Stages One Two, Three and Four

These resources from the National Curriculum Council were published in 1991 following the recently introduced National Curriculum. They were designed to help schools in their own INSET programmes, and were written with local or departmental groups of teachers in mind. The introduction of the National Curriculum posed many questions for schools as they started to come to terms with the need to review not only their schemes of work but their whole approach to teaching and learning. Schools could match their choice of material from the pack to their own needs and priorities. It was seen as a long-term resource as reviewing a mathematics scheme of work for a year-group or for a whole key stage could not be done in a hurry.

Section A: planning
Different approaches to teaching mathematics open this section. Other issues covering curriculum planning, classroom practice and subject content flow from that first section. 'Improving classroom activities' in both folders centres on ways of taking a task and demonstrating how it could be modified to include cross-curricular themes, use of computers, practical work and offering opportunities for students to develop a wide range of mathematical skills, processes and strategies, personal qualities and attitudes.

Section B: using and applying mathematics
The National Curriculum emphasised that students should use functions such as number, algebra and shape in practical tasks. This section begins with an activity which involves designing, making and manipulating three-dimensional models, before giving some ideas for the following classroom activities:
• Inventing nets for boxes
• Investigating Linkages
• Picture framing
• Paying a bill
• Direct number game (Key Stages Three and Four)
• Designing a paper plane (with examples of students’ work)

Section C: communication in the classroom
This section shows the importance of listening to students, and the necessity of creating an atmosphere in the classroom where problems are detected and discussed in a supportive, non-threatening way. The activities include a role-playing exercise designed to promote thinking about the difficulties of diagnosing errors and misconceptions, playing games to stimulate discussion and to put forward hypotheses, collaborative activities involving interpreting and communicating information through the means of data relating to drinking and driving.

Further sections, with classroom activities, were added in 1993 covering:
Number: The number system, methods of calculation, ideas for developing fractions and decimals.
Algebra: symbolic representation, function machines, graphing and pattern, linking algebra and shapes.
Shape and space: rotational symmetry, angels, transformations, tessellations and decision mathematics using flow charts.
Handling data: decision tree diagrams, graphical representation, spreadsheets and probability.

• URL: http://stem.org.uk/rx7c7