Joined Up Teaching and Learning: A Maths and Physics Journey at HodgsonAcademy

Joint working in Maths & Physics at Hodgson

July 2014

 

Purpose of the project

• The project was conceived in July 2013 as an NPQML project that would demonstrate effective leadership and have a direct or indirect impact upon improving teaching and learning at Hodgson.
• The project required leading a team for an extended period in support of a school improvement priority.  The school improvement priority chosen was enhancing outstanding teaching through an Innovative Curriculum and Pedagogical Change .
• The Initial focus was year 8 physics, as physics has high inter-dependency with maths, and year 8 allows for more freedom in the programming of the teaching schedule prior to GCSE.  The year 8 physics scheme is unchanged from the previous year allowing comparison of student results.
• The focus of the project would be on better aligning timing, scope, terminology, methods, NC levels, between maths and physics.   The project outcomes would be assessed by a student focus group, physics teaching staff and a comparison of physics module results.
• The key participants in the project design and Programme of Study development were Paul Stubbins (Project Leader - maths) and David Morfee (physics) and the entire Hodgson maths team in implementation.
  Project Plan

 

Programme of Study Development

• Analysis of Numeracy Skills, with required dates, for science modules and tasks, generated 16 strong linkages with specific teaching within the maths PoS .  Of these, 7 required modification of the maths PoS to enable maths teaching to support application in physics in terms of both timing and scheme content.
• The maths schemes were re-ordered to bring data handling tasks forward and the data handling teaching specifications modified for the entire year group. 
• The scope of the maths schemes were modified to include all necessary skills, remove conflicts in terminology, and make reference to application to physics.
• Maths homeworks were also modified to gain practice in the essential skills identified as dependencies.  Maths assessments were similarly modified to suit.
• The maths team was briefed on the rationale behind the project at the start so that they felt involved and to gain their support.  Again, after the PoS was updated, the maths team were briefed on the revised teaching programme to ensure their understanding of the changes and gain commitment to and to the need to emphasise the applications in physics.
• A sample Maths Scheme update is given in Appendix A

Project Outputs

Joined up teaching

• The maths team benefitted from being able to introduce applications of the work to students, which would increase the relevance of the topic and to help to gain the students’ interest.
• Physics Staff reported positively of the impact of joint working in their classrooms:

• "I found pupils were able to draw graphs with much more ease this year and needed much less guidance on which variable goes on which axis. This impacted my teaching as I was able to focus on scientific terms rather than mathematical skills." - Mrs Nina Bye, teacher of Science.
•  "Particularly on speed, distance and time, pupils were comfortable with their mathematical skills and did not need much, if any guidance on this topic. Frequently pupils would comment "we've done this in Maths" and realised the cross-over of the two disciplines. This greatly influenced my teaching of the topic as I was able to focus on scientific method and technical words such as velocity and speed rather than teaching how to label axis and re-arrange equations." Mr David Morfee, teacher of Physics.
•  "I found students to be better prepared when coming to lesson, particularly when drawing graphs. I noticed more pupils were also coming with calculators. I felt able to spend more time teaching Science rather than teaching the Maths that supports Science. In this sense I feel that Maths have done a great job on this and have had a great impact on teaching and learning in my classroom for this year group." Mr Andrew Ball, teacher of Science.
• “With time being tight in Science to fit in the required content, it was brilliant for us to not need spend as much time teaching the necessary maths skills”  Miss Jodie Morton, Lead Teacher of Science

Joined up learning

• A cross-section of 12 year 8 students was consulted on their impression of the current linkages between maths and other subjects.  Between the initial and final consultations, there was a greater number who felt that they learned similar topics in maths and physics, had learned them in similar ways and who remembered having learned the maths skills when they used them in science. Also more felt like they learned real world applications in maths.
• The summaries of the two student consultations are given in Appendix B.

Improved physics module results

• Impact on student results was measured by comparing module results for the two impacted physics modules, together with a mid year assessment which covered a broader range of topics.  The comparison was limited to these two years in which no changes had been made to the physics teaching scheme or assessments.
• The mean student achievement was significantly higher for the nViz physics module (6a from 5a, an increase of about 17%).  Student achievement in the Live & kicking module and the mid-year assessment were unchanged (improvements of less than 1%).  It is recognised that this is limited data upon which to produce statistically significant conclusions, but the improvement in nViz outcomes would appear to be tangible.  
• It is recognised that the student target levels are higher in 2013-2014, suggesting that the students might be expected to out-perform the previous year group; the CAT mean between the two year groups is less pronounced at 2.6% higher.  The rational for determination of target levels may have changed between year groups.

	CAT mean	Target	Achievement
			nViz	mid Year Ass't	Live & Kicking
2012-2013	100.0	5a	5a	6c	6c
2013-2014	102.6	6c/6b	6a	6c	6c

 

Next Steps

This project summary was presented at the Hodgson learning Centred leadership team meeting on the 8^th July 2014.  The project was well received at this forum, where Jodie Morton, lead Teacher of Science concluded that the exercise had been brilliant for her department.

Having proved the process, the maths team welcomes other departments who would like to work together to better understand and harmonize their programmes of study.