Numeracy News
Tuesday 7 April 2009
We recently attended the two National Conferences entitled “What works for children with mathematical difficulties? - The effectiveness of intervention schemes”, which launched Ann Dowker’s new research paper (following on from her 2004 work) and also looked at the ways in which LAs and schools can best introduce a layered approach to intervention.
As a result of Ann’s research, three approaches have been highlighted as having a solid evidence base and a national infrastructure of training provision. The three approaches are Mathematics Recovery, Catch Up Numeracy and Numicon.
Here is the information about our new Closing the Gap Intervention Programme that we have developed to support this layered intervention approach. This programme is specifically for TAs and a supporting teacher for work with children in Wave 2 and ‘lighter touch’ Wave 3 and therefore complements but is different from our current training / professional development, which supports teachers using Numicon in Quality First teaching and across all 3 Waves of Intervention. Find out more about Numicon Professional Development.
A brief summary of Recommendations from
Ann Dowker’s Report (p.16-19):
1. Individually targeted interventions appear worthwhile and should be continued and further developed
2. So far, there is no evidence that any one programme is best for most or all children
3. Importance of appropriate management, guidance and training
4. Importance of suitable assessments
5. Appropriate use, development and testing of apparatus and multisensory and multi-context teaching (here Margaret Haseler, who works for Bromley LA and is a Numicon accredited trainer is quoted: “It is also important to remember that however ‘good’ we believe the equipment to be, it will only be of value if it is used by suitably trained staff who understand the rationale behind it” – we totally agree!)
6. Consideration of ways in which ICT may be used in interventions
7. Further research and evaluation should be carried out
8. Different types of mathematics
9. Extending the age range for the study of interventions
Other items of interest:
1. Numicon, the evaluation of Numicon within Every Child Counts Research and the LA Research Projects using Numicon for which there was deemed to be sufficient quantitative evidence (Brighton & Hove, Bury and Leeds) are profiled on p.30-33
2. p.6 “The most consistent finding about children with mathematical difficulties is that many have particular difficulty in retrieving arithmetic facts resulting in an excessive reliance on counting strategies, at an age when other children of the same age are relying much more on fact retrieval” – we believe that using Numicon effectively addresses this excessive reliance on counting strategies
3. Every Child Counts Research Results – these feature in the Mathematics Recovery, Numeracy Recovery and Numicon sections separately. Children made gains in all LAs but we thought that it may be useful for you to see the results in a table:
4. Finally, we love the title of the Bury Learning Support Team (2008) Research Project that features in the Bibliography (p.42): “We Think Numicon Rocks!”
To read the report in full click here
