Tried and Tested: Fraction Tower® Cubes Equivalency Set
What is Mathematics Mastery?
Mastery approaches to teaching maths is a current hot topic within education. ‘Mastery’ means acquiring a deep, secure and transferable understanding of maths. Our Educational Product Development Coordinator and in-house teacher, Joanne Moore, has outlined the 3 main elements for developing ‘mastery’ (also the 3 aims in the National Curriculum for Maths):
- Fluency: to develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.
- Reasoning: to follow a line of enquiry, conjecture relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language.
- Problem solving: to apply mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.
‘Mastery’ is built gradually and, in order to acquire the skills to a deepened level, learning moves through three different stages (based on Bruner, 1960); concrete, pictorial and abstract.