Is this the best way to improve mathematics learning for all?
By Carly Sawatzki, Deakin University and Danielle Armour, University of Queensland
The promise of a mathematics education that can support young people to overcome disadvantage is far from being met and the conditions for teaching and learning on the margins are increasingly untenable. In under-funded public schools, teachers and students are deprived of the resources they need to be successful and so struggle with unfilled teaching vacancies, out-of-field teaching assignments, and teacher absenteeism and attrition. Even well-resourced public schools have difficulties staffing programs that can help students who are identified as needing additional support (termed priority cohort students). In this article, we explore the political origins of recent instructional wars and mandates and the different perspectives on whether this is the best way to improve mathematics learning for all.
The features of a world-class education system
Australia has two longstanding Educational Goals for Young Australians (Education Council, 2019) that are intended to unite governments, government bodies, school sectors, individual schools, and teachers in their work towards educating young people. The first goal is for an education system that promotes excellence and equity. The second goal is for all young Australians to become confident and creative, successful lifelong learners, and active and informed community members.
Australia’s education system cannot be considered world-class, because it serves some students well and others far less so. In Australia, how young people progress and achieve at school varies by factors that are outside their control, such as where they live, their parents’ education and employment, and their language and cultural background (De Bortoli et al. 2023). This is why the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) describes Australia as being a low-equity country. In fact, we rank in the bottom third of OECD countries in providing equitable access to education.
The Australian Government’s Improving Outcomes for All report (Department of Education, 2023) identifies seven priority areas for reform and the sort of things that Education Ministers can do to build a better and fairer education system. Stated priorities include to lift student outcomes and improve equity.
While everyone agrees that the situation is urgent, there is less agreement on what policy responses are appropriate.
You need to know about AERO
The Morrison government established the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) in 2020 in response to findings and recommendations made as part of the Review to Achieve Educational Excellence in Australian Schools, also known as the Gonski Review 2.0 (Commonwealth of Australia, 2018).
The establishment of AERO was one of eight national policy initiatives in the 2019-2024 National School Reform Agreement. On its website – https://www.edresearch.edu.au/about-us – AERO describes a vision:
“for Australia to achieve excellence and equity in educational outcomes for all children and young people through effective use of evidence. In support of this vision, we:
- generate high-quality evidence
- present the evidence in ways that are relevant and accessible
- encourage adoption and effective implementation of evidence in practice and policy.”
Despite their reported remit, high-quality educational research studies involving Australian teachers and students across diverse educational settings are being ignored by AERO. This devalues the significant contributions that Australian scholars, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander scholars, have made together with school communities to ensure the most expansive understanding of how teachers and students can interact to optimise student outcomes.
What AERO wants: Equality in the provision of teaching instruction
AERO argues that the best way to lift student outcomes and improve equity is through a knowledge-rich curriculum that prioritises and explicitly outlines the subject knowledge and related skills that students should be taught and develop at each stage of their schooling. They say that the solution lies in providing all students with access to a common body of knowledge, including standardised lesson plans and slide stacks with sufficient scripting and worked examples to ensure consistent classroom delivery. The story goes that such resources, combined with explicit or direct instruction can minimise the impact of individual challenges and barriers to learning. This way of thinking is common in settler colonial countries like Australia.
The counterpoint: Equality and equity are distinct concepts
The alternative view is that teaching everyone the same way won’t necessarily result in educational justice or reduce gaps in achievement – but giving school communities the time and space required to plan for and reflect on meaningful learning experiences can. In fact, the architects of the Australian Curriculum encourage professional educators to design learning experiences in ways that value teachers’ professional knowledge, reflect local contexts, and take into account individual students’ family, cultural, and community backgrounds (ACARA, 2024). This advice respects that Australian teachers must demonstrate Professional Standards in knowledge, practice and engagement to maintain registration to teach, and so can be relied upon to plan for and implement effective teaching and learning (AITSL, 2017). The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority is responsible for high quality curriculum, assessment and reporting to enable learning for life in line with these national frameworks.
How can we teach mathematics effectively?
Mathematics teaching and learning must be ‘lifeworthy’ (Perkins, 2016). To achieve lifeworthiness, mathematics must be taught and learned through a variety of instructional approaches that resonate with the diverse lifeworlds and funds of knowledge (Moll et al., 1992) that young people bring to the classroom, as well as the diverse futures they wish to pursue.
Rather than one best way to teach and learn mathematics, there is a multitude of effective approaches. This range is reflected in Victoria’s previous commitment to 10 High Impact Teaching Strategies, which teachers have worked hard to develop and refine. Note that in the United States, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics identifies seven effective teaching practices underpinned by meaningful and interactive mathematical discourse. An OECD analysis of teaching strategies that ensure instructional quality (Le Donné et al, 2016) identified that cognitive engagement and active learning strategies were more effective than explicit or direct instruction, which was the most prevalent mode of instruction, but the least related to mathematics performance. Associations were even weaker in disadvantaged school settings, suggesting the importance of nuanced and responsive pedagogies in these places.
Improved outcomes for all relies on locally responsive curriculum making
Australian educational reform that is context-blind and requires all students to learn via instructional strategies that reflect a normalized, middle-class worldview and English language tradition is an example of colonising policy. This approach has failed generations of priority cohort students and will continue to do so.
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples emphasises that education is a fundamental human right and an endeavour that must be contextualised in ways that honour the unique identities, cultures, and contributions that young people bring to school (United Nations, 2007). Through local partnerships with Indigenous families and communities, Indigenous cultural knowledge can be integrated into everyday learning (Fricker et al. 2023). Further, the use of culturally appropriate resources can reduce the cultural, linguistic, and contextual barriers often associated with engaging Indigenous students in learning mathematics (Sarra & Ewing, 2014).
Consistent with these ideas, Australia’s 10 mathematics associations developed a commitment statement to make a systematic difference in mathematics education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learners. The commitment statement references the importance of culturally responsive practices, which have shown promising outcomes among marginalised student populations internationally. Morrison et al. (2016-2019) and Rigney et al. (2020) describe these practices as: providing high intellectual challenge; making strong connections to young people’s lifeworlds; ensuring all young people feel positive about their own cultural identity; constructing opportunities for young people to share their learning in meaningful ways (including via multimodal literacies) within community; and modelling and inspiring a problem-solving, activist orientation.
Concluding remarks
Leading Australian scholars are voicing serious concerns about AERO. These concerns include that the organisation is basing its directions on a narrow view of research evidence and what quality schooling can look like (van Bergen et al., 2024) and is not being held to high enough standards (Albrecht, 2024). Decades of mathematics education research exists to forewarn education authorities about the risks associated with instructional mandates (Brown, 2024; Brunker, 2024; Tytler, 2024).
Of course, we want all young people to be educated to achieve their potential and lead their best lives. Ultimately, the promise of templated lesson plans, slide stacks, and explicit or direct instruction seems not only wishful but will likely prove a costly mistake.
About the authors
Dr Carly Sawatzki is a non-Indigenous teacher educator and educational researcher in Deakin University’s School of Education. She supports teachers of mathematics to teach differently, by helping them to connect students’ classroom learning with their current and future lifeworlds.
Dr Danielle Armour is a proud Kamilaroi woman from northern NSW and Senior Lecturer in the University of Queensland’s School of Education. Danielle’s research area is in Aboriginal education. She has extensive experience working in partnership Elders and community members, including co-constructing curriculum and learning experiences.
What can you do to keep learning?
Uncover Emma Rowe and Sarah Langman’s appraisal the politics behind the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) – The Australian Education Research Organisation and corporate philanthropy
Find out more about the NCTM’s 7 effective mathematics teaching practices – Effective Mathematics Teaching Practices
References
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