Threats and opportunities in remote learning of mathematics: implication for the return to the classroom
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Threats and opportunities in remote learning of mathematics: implication for the return to the classroom Peter Sullivan 1 & Janette Bobis 2 & Ann Downton 1 & Maggie Feng 2 & Sally Hughes 1 & Sharyn Livy 1 & Melody McCormick 1 & James Russo 1 Received: 2 June 2020 / Accepted: 3 June 2020/ # Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia, Inc. 2020
Abstract Australian schools, like schools elsewhere, have been through a period of closure. The closure creates both threats and opportunities for teachers and students. In the context of a project exploring approaches to teaching in early years, we outline some considerations and offer advice to teachers and educators on strategies for welcoming students back to school. Keywords Mathematics . Remote learning . Threats
Introduction There is ongoing debate about optimal ways to teach mathematics. On one hand, there are those who argue that mathematics teaching should mainly include clear explanation of procedures followed by practice and correction (Kirschner et al. 2006; Przychodzin et al. 2004). This approach is relatively easy to adapt to online environments in that there are many short videos that offer demonstrations and explanations and practice exercises or games that can be easily sourced online or created by teachers. There are a number of threats if this is the only experience students have. Learning this way may be less interesting to students working by themselves. It is hard for the teacher to provide explanations and targeted practice that meets students’ needs. But most of all, students are not thinking about mathematics, they are not doing mathematics, when working
The authors are engaged in a project funded by the Australian Research Council, Catholic Diocese of Parramatta and Catholic Education Melbourne (LP 180100611). The views expressed are opinions of the authors who take full responsibility for the ethical conduct of the research and preparation of the article.
* Peter Sullivan [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
P. Sullivan et al.
online, and they are likely to form the impression that mathematics is something that is done to them rather than knowledge and connections that they create. On the other side of this debate are those who argue that mathematics learning is best when students solve mathematics tasks for themselves, when they have opportunities to explain and justify their reasoning, and when they connect different aspects of mathematics (Kapur 2014; Schwartz and Martin 2004; Sullivan et al. 2020). This approach is more difficult to arrange in remote and online environments. Of course a balanced mathematical program would have elements of both. But it is possible that students might return to school after the early 2020 COVID-19 shutdowns having had substantial experience with the former and not much of the latter. This article describes our experience of a project focussing on elements of the latter approach that commenced with teachers and their Foundation to Year 2 stu
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