International Maths Challenge

  Catering for students’ learning needs is something we all aim to do. But it can be challenging. Is it just about differentiation? What is the best way to differentiate? How do we put it into practice? Let’s explore some ideas, strategies and tips. Differentiation When you hear the word differentiation, what do you think of? Ability groupings? Open-ended tasks? Educational consultant Jennifer Bowden from the Mathematical Association of Victoria believes differentiation involves teachers considering “a whole range of different pedagogies … and making choices about pedagogical approaches based on the students that they teach”. In a nutshell it comes down to knowing your students and how they learn, so you can cater for their needs. Find out  what  students know Assessment is key to discovering what your students know – and don’t know! You can assess students to find out what knowledge they have, the concepts they understand and the skills they can apply to tasks. Data from...

From the Fibonacci sequence to the Bell numbers, there is more overlap between mathematics and poetry than you might think, says Peter Rowlett, who has found his inner poet. People like to position maths as cold, hard logic, quite distinct from creative pursuits. Actually, maths often involves a great deal of creativity. As mathematician Sofya Kovalevskaya wrote, “It is impossible to be a mathematician without being a poet in soul.” Poetry is often constrained by rules, and these add to, rather than detract from, its creativity. Rhyming poems generally follow a scheme formed by giving each line a letter, so that lines with matching letters rhyme. This verse from a poem by A. A. Milne uses an ABAB scheme: What shall I call My dear little dormouse? His eyes are small, But his tail is e-nor-mouse . In poetry, as in maths, it is important to understand the rules well enough to know when it is okay to break them. “Enormous” doesn’t rhyme with “dormouse”, but using a nonsense word preserves ...