In the new National Curriculum (September 2014), there are three Aims central to everything within the Maths content. These are:
- Reasoning – following a line of enquiry, conjecturing ideas, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language;
- Fluency – being able to make connections and use what they know to find out what they don’t know, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding;
- Problem solving – applying their skills to a variety of problems, breaking them down into smaller steps in order to solve them.
Everything we do in Maths is designed to achieve these aims. Every Maths lesson should be a problem solving lesson!
Every child is given opportunities to develop their mathematical powers:
- Imagine and Express – to picture something inside their head and describe it to others;
- Conjecture and convince – to suggest an idea and then try to prove that it is right;
- Specialise and generalise – to solve problems individually and also to spot patterns and make general rules;
- Organise and classify – to be able to take a collection of data or shapes and sort it out into an order or into groups that are the same.
Everybody has mathematical powers! Let’s use them!
