The Grattan Institute surveyed 1745 teachers, with one in five saying they worried about teaching maths, while 94 per cent of school leaders said at least some teachers at their school would be hesitant to teach year 5 or 6 maths.
While 72 per cent of teachers said they would feel confident teaching year 6 maths topics, that leaves “more than one in four teachers (28 per cent) of who did not feel this way,” the report said.
“Only 25 per cent of teachers said that all students in their school are taught by teachers with strong mathematics subject knowledge.”
Governments have for too long failed to rule out “faddish” teaching methods, the report says, and to lift performance policymakers need to take seriously “the evidence base on how humans, including children, learn maths most effectively.
“The opportunity to lift maths achievement starts in primary schools.”
The report highlighted seven primary schools in NSW, Victoria and Western Australia that have adopted explicit, systematic and evidence-based approaches to maths teaching.
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“In all these schools principals had a strong sense that they were ultimately responsible for the quality of teaching and students’ maths achievement. As a result, they were frequently in and out of classes and heavily involved in professional learning,” the report says.
Dave Stitt, principal at The Entrance Public in the Central Coast, said his school shifted to an explicit teaching approach five years ago.
“We are now in the top 10 per cent of public schools when it comes to value-add data from year 5 to 7,” he said, referring to NSW Education Department data that estimates the contribution a school makes to student learning.
The Entrance Public uses student warm-up sessions at the start of class to make sure previously taught maths content is reinforced and embedded into memory. Teachers have weekly meetings on student progress and two assistant principals are dedicated instruction coaches.
St Bernard’s Primary School uses a bank of lesson plans and materials which teachers say has cut down the time spent planning classes.Credit: Tamara Dean
At St Bernard’s Catholic School in Batemans Bay, principal Karen Hadley said the school uses a bank of lesson plans developed by not-for-profit group Ochre.
“Teachers are no longer trying to work it out on their own. Before, they would waste a lot of time trying to pull together lessons by themselves.”
Fluency in times tables and maths operations is key, she says, adding the school wound back use of maths games or “manipulatives” in class. Before the school moved to an explicit teaching approach in 2020, maths lessons involved rotating students around “workstations” to attempt activities, but they often weren’t clearly explained or modelled.
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Hunter said some schools that use “games and maths-lite activities” are too often the driving focus of a lesson without clear teaching of new concepts and skills
She said Australia needs to “stop accepting maths mediocrity,” and for Australia commit to 90 per cent proficiency in numeracy and for clear national guidance on effective teaching practices.
The federal government’s new school funding agreement with states includes a year 1 numeracy check and NAPLAN targets.
Federal education minister Jason Clare said: “We’re also improving teacher training at university to make sure teaching students are taught the fundamentals about how to teach children to read, write and do maths, and how to manage disruptive classrooms.”
With Bridie Smith
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