Using EdTech to Enhance Maths Education
Embedded Files
LEO Academy Trust has successfully embedded educational technology across the entire maths curriculum in all its schools, from early years to the end of primary.
The following insights detail the positive impact this has had on both teachers and students.
How can EdTech improve efficiency and effectiveness in Maths? PLE
'The impact of using digital manipulatives has on children's understanding. They're able to see the resources being used in real-time. When they're doing a subtraction equation that needs renaming, they can see exactly what's happening. And you can screencast it as well. It makes a nice video that the teacher can make, that the child can also make'
Natasha Dolling
Former Director of Maths
LEO Academy Trust
'The impact for me as a maths director has been a greater insight into the mathematics at each school within my trust. When I meet with maths leaders, I can have more targeted conversations about their planning and teaching impact within their schools. I think teachers now have a wealth of data and information about the maths teaching that's going on in their class, so I can help them unpick that data and make it more meaningful to put into future planning, future intervention groups, and future interactions with their children.'
Natasha Dolling
Former Director of Maths
LEO Academy Trust
What classroom cultures are in place to allow learners to use EdTech to support their maths? PLEO 24a
'We've given students digital tools to help them autonomously solve math problems. These tools provide on-demand support, allowing children to get help whenever they need it without having to rely on a teacher. This also enables them to continue their learning at home for homework or other tasks.
Those skills transcend the lesson outside into whatever workplace environment they're in where they can help themselves independently based on the skills they've been taught in the lesson'
Natasha Dolling
Former Director of Maths
LEO Academy Trust
How does technology help pupils learn more effectively when studying maths?
'Teachers and students can work together outside of school to embed math skills. For example, a teacher can pre-record a video of themselves modeling a concept, which students can watch at home. This removes the reliance on parents to explain things and allows children to learn at their own pace.
Digital manipulatives and resources can also help level the playing field, ensuring all students have access to the same tools they use in the classroom, regardless of what they have at home. This is crucial for upskilling children who need more exposure to math beyond the school day'
Natasha Dolling
Former Director of Maths
LEO Academy Trust
What role does technology have in delivering the maths curriculum?
'The input you have to put in is carefully constructing the activities, the crack, questioning, choosing what manipulatives you want the children to use. That's where you spend the time. It's not in marking endless worksheets, marking incorrect answers, getting the same children to come back and mark the same errors that they make. It's done in the lesson. And your teaching is specifically targeted to those errors.'
Natasha Dolling
Former Director of Maths
LEO Academy Trust
How did you use technology to enhance teaching the concept of money and value in Maths?
'I could target specific children instantly based on what I could see on the board, which was a summary of what all the children were doing. At the same time, I could also see that there were some children that were being much slower to drag the correct coins into the purses. And in the same way, I could go over and target those children instantly rather than wait until the end of the lesson to find that they had struggled and had needed more help.'
Natasha Dolling
Director of Maths
LEO Academy Trust
How can T&L be supported outside of school time using technology effectively?
'There's so many different ways that technology can help you if you're stuck in maths, from prerecorded videos you can watch back something being modelled as many times as you need it, even rewinding to watch back something that you missed. There's also different ways you can record your learning.
You don't have to write everything down, you can speak it, you can screencast where you're moving the resources on a page, which sometimes I think is much more useful than writing down an answer. It's a great way to show you're calculations without just writing an answer in a box and then having to wait to the end of the lesson to find that out and then having to go back and revisit it'
Natasha Dolling
Former Director of Maths
LEO Academy Trust
Examples of technology use in everyday maths teaching
'So using things like Mathagon, where you can actually have an unlimited amount of resources to actually use that, rather than always trying to find that bit of resource that you haven't got quite enough of, having those in a digital form has really helped us.'
Emma Potter
Vice Principal
Cheam Park Primary School
What advice would you give to maths teachers in the use of technology to enhance their teaching?
'I think that was something that I had to understand as a teacher, that actually, just because you've got a Chromebook in front of them doesn't mean that that's going to automatically make the lesson better. Have I chosen the right technology that's going to support them? And are they using it in a way that's actually going to move them forward?'
Emma Potter
Vice Principal
Cheam Park Primary School
What advice would you give to an already successful teachers but one that does not currently fully utilise all that technology can offer for maths teaching?
'So we've seen a drastic impact on our teacher workload that actually they are being freed up now to really personalise learning for children using technology, rather than getting bogged down with having to look at lots of different resources. And so it makes a big impact on that for them'
Emma Potter
Vice Principal
Cheam Park Primary School
Maths an EdTech: Expert Panel Discussion
Reflections from the Maths focus study tour
The panel discussion featured an expert panel from LEO Academy Trust to explore the role of technology in the effective delivery of the maths curriculum; it covered the following themes:
Digital Strategy and change management
What is effective maths teaching and learning?
Understanding impact
Supporting staff
Getting the pedagogy right
London
Maths Focus Study Tour
March 2023
Watch a summary of the Maths Focus Study Tour at Cheam Common Junior School
Other Related LGfL Maths Links
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