Professional learning
During 2008, the Mathematics Unit Curriculum K-12 Directorate will be presenting one-day workshops for teachers, supplementing the workshops provided by regional consultants. The workshops will provide support for teaching the Mathematics K-6 syllabus.
For more information about these workshops go to: 
2008 Professional learning activities
What does the research tell us?
Learning is enhanced when teachers:
- pay attention to the knowledge and beliefs that learners bring to a learning task
- use this knowledge as a starting point for new instruction
- monitor students' changing conceptions as instruction proceeds.
Implications for teaching
Teachers must draw out and work with the pre-existing understandings that their students bring with them. The teacher must actively inquire into students’ thinking, creating classroom tasks and conditions under which student thinking can be revealed. Assessment must tap understanding rather than merely the ability to repeat facts or perform isolated skills.
Teachers must teach some subject matter in depth, providing many examples in which the same concept is at work and providing a firm foundation of factual knowledge. Superficial coverage of all topics in a subject area must be replaced with in-depth coverage of fewer topics that allows key concepts to be understood.
The teaching of metacognitive skills (i.e. thinking about how you think) should be integrated into the curriculum.
Are some teaching techniques better than others?
Is lecturing always a poor way to teach? Is cooperative learning effective? Do attempts to use computers help achievement or hurt it? These are the wrong questions! Asking which teaching technique is best is akin to asking which tool is best - a hammer, a screwdriver or pliers? In teaching, the selection of tools depends on the task at hand and the materials one is working with. There is no universal best teaching practice.
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