‘Faddish and inconsistent’ teaching to blame for maths failures, report says

Australian schools require an investment of one and a half billion dollars over the next decade and an overhaul of “faddish” teaching practice to reverse the nation’s chronic maths failure, according to new research.

The Grattan Institute’s Maths Guarantee report, released on Monday, builds on the last two years of NAPLAN results, which showed one third of Australian students have been failing to reach maths proficiency.

“In our latest international maths assessment, only 13 per cent of Year 4 students in Australia were in the advanced performance category, compared to 22 per cent in England and 49 per cent in Singapore.”

The report revealed that problems start in primary school, leaving students frustrated and defeated, as they fall further behind in high school.

“It can be very challenging for those children that fall behind,” Ms Hunter said.

“We know that primary school students form a perception of themselves as to whether or not they good or bad at maths really early and that perception can be quite hard to budge.”

The stakes get even higher as students progress to adulthood.

“[Maths] is really important for everyday life, whether it’s managing a budget in your family life, running a small business, comparing grocery prices, paying your taxes, thinking about dosage for medication — maths matters for all of those things,” Ms Hunter said.

‘Faddish’ teaching a problem, as is teacher confidence

The Grattan report included a survey of 1,745 teachers and school leaders from primary schools across Australia.

While many were passionate about teaching maths, 28 per cent of primary school teachers said they would not feel confident teaching maths at an upper primary school level.

That finding was reinforced by 94 per cent of school leaders who said at least some teachers at their schools would be hesitant to teach these upper primary maths.

“That’s worrying. That can create really significant timetable challenges for school leaders. We really need to make sure that all of our primary teachers are confident,” Ms Hunter said.

Only 43 per cent of teachers said maths was timetabled at their schools, leading to concerns from the researchers it was being “de-prioritised” in the classroom.

And maths anxiety seemed to be impacting some teachers, with 21 per cent more worried about teaching maths than other subjects.

The researchers also hit out at “faddish and inconsistent” teaching practices, where “maths-lite” games were favoured over high-quality explicit teaching, particularly at primary school.

The survey found just 46 per cent of teachers said there was an agreement at their school on what effective maths teaching involved.

“We’re really selling our students short, so what we’re hoping to see is a pushback to more of that explicit teaching at the outset to really set students up for those more cognitively demanding tasks,” Ms Hunter said.

The report called for a $152 million annual investment for 10 years in teacher development, consistent explicit teaching practices and maths hubs with expert coaches.

“What we really want to see is Australia commit to much high-performance in mathematics and a higher aspirational target of getting 90 per cent of children to proficiency in NAPLAN,” Ms Hunter said.

Some of the recommendations are already being implemented through a new public school funding deal between the states and the Commonwealth.

It calls for national numeracy screening, catch up tutoring and a commitment to evidence-based teaching.

Most states have separately moved to adopt explicit instruction in public education, as have several private school systems.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said the new funding deal would see public schools fully funded for the first time.

“The agreements also have targets, including that by 2030, in NAPLAN, we reduce the proportion of all students in the Needs Additional Support proficiency level by 10 per cent,” Mr Clare said.

NSW Education Minister and Deputy Premier Prue Car said the government was investing in catch up tutoring, numeracy screening and hiring more teachers.

“As this report demonstrates, we came to government with many of our students’ maths outcomes in freefall, after more than a decade of neglect by the Liberals and Nationals,” Ms Car said.

“While we can’t reverse these issues overnight, we are determined to keep working to ensure there are enough highly qualified teachers in front of every classroom.”

School celebrated as a model for others

At Budgewoi Public School on the New South Wales Central Coast, the disadvantaged school has turned its maths results around, exceeding the state average for the first time in its history.

It has been hailed by the Grattan Institute as a model for other schools to follow.

“The community will love this acknowledgement,” principal Nathan Forbes said.

“This is great recognition and acknowledgement that the Budgewoi kids can do just as well as every other child in the state.”

It’s a school where 83 per cent of kids are in the bottom quartiles for educational advantage.

“Typically, 17 per cent of our students come from an Aboriginal background. Many students face social economic disadvantage and all come with a great range of abilities and potential,” Mr Forbes said.

The principal attributed the new-found success to adopting explicit teaching.

As part of that, students are closely monitored and never left to flounder alone.

“Every single kid is experiencing success in maths, so the way that we are teaching maths allowed students to feel comfortable allowed them to feel like they knew what was going on,” Mr Forbes said.