Primary school maths association seminar - Lots to think about !!

Keynote: "Making big mathematical ideas accessible to all learners" (Shelley Dole)

Big mathematics ideas take time to develop. Helping children develop meaningful mathematics knowledge requires rich learning experiences that actively engage them in thinking and reasoning. Educational psychologist Jerome Bruner (1915-2016) theorised that any learner at any age is capable of learning any material so long as it is packaged and delivered in an organised way. Bruner also suggested that structuring learning experiences that progress through a sequence of enactive (doing) to iconic (physical/diagrammatic) to symbolic representation supports connected knowledge and understanding. Both these ideas have major implications for designing mathematics instruction. Drawing on these notions, examples of classroom activities that immerse learners in the big ideas of mathematics despite their starting level knowledge, are presented. All activities are designed to promote and build reasoning, a big idea that threads throughout the school mathematics curriculum.