Mathematics Developmental Continuum P-10

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User Guide

The Mathematics Developmental Continuum P-10 is designed to assist teachers in supporting students to achieve the Victorian Essential Learning Standards in Mathematics.

The User Guide provides further information about the design of the Mathematics Developmental Continuum P – 10 and effective use of the resource in planning.

 

 

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Navigating the Mathematics Developmental Continuum P - 10

The Mathematics Developmental Continuum P – 10 will be most effective when used to identify students’ current mathematical thinking and plan for purposeful teaching for individuals and small groups of students with similar needs. The most effective teaching and learning strategies are those that build on students’ prior knowledge and skills, supporting them to develop new understandings.

The Mathematics Developmental Continuum P – 10 is structured around identifying indicators of progress. These indicators are points on the learning continuum that highlight ‘critical understandings’ required by students in order to progress in their mathematical learning. The indicators of progress often highlight common misconceptions of students.

The indicators of progress will support teachers’ in deepening their understanding of student growth in mathematics through research-based descriptors of achievement. It is important to note that they do not capture all aspects of learning within a dimension.

See an enlarged structure of the Continuum (PDF - 27Kb)

The indicators of progress support purposeful teaching by informing teachers of the progress students should be making and the types of learning and teaching experiences appropriate for further progress to occur. In this context teachers will use the indicators of progress as part of their ongoing assessment and monitoring.

Within each indicator of progress, the Continuum presents illustrations which are designed to exemplify the prior knowledge, skills and behaviours of the students. This is often through focussed observations or diagnostic tasks. The illustrations are effective in determining where students are in their mathematical thinking and uncovering any misconceptions present.

Teaching strategies and activities are then identified; these are specific tasks that are designed to support conceptual understanding building from the students’ existing ideas. Whilst more than one activity may be best to support student progress, these activities do not represent a unit plan or a whole class lesson.

To best support teachers in their developing a holistic understanding of mathematical development and student learning, two support material documents are included.

Developmental Overviews show the growth of important concepts and the interconnected nature of mathematics learning across dimensions. Ten developmental overviews have been created to demonstrate progression and development of the ‘big ideas’ in mathematics across the six VELS levels. Here is the Developmental Overviews index page.

Related progression points summarise key developmental learning and future learning associated with a specific indicator of progress. The points have been collated from the Victorian Essential Learning Standards and progression points documents.

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Learning and teaching using the Mathematics Developmental Continuum P-10

The Mathematics Developmental Continuum P – 10 supports the Mathematics standards and progression points and should be read in conjunction with these and the learning focus statements for each level.

To use the Continuum effectively, it is best read with a specific student/group of students in mind. Teachers determine the most appropriate level of student understanding through an on-balance judgement, and use this as the entry point into the resource.

The challenge for all teachers is to accurately identify where a student is located on the learning continuum and to design learning experiences which enable all students to make progress.

The teaching strategies and activities within the Continuum can be used to elicit teaching ideas, or as a model for designing similarly purposed activities. In planning for differentiation (i.e. placing the learner at the centre) teachers should consider the range of understanding within the cohort and where student may be placed according to the standards and progression points.

It will be useful to refer to the developmental overviews and the related progression points when planning for differentiation to see how concept development occurs across dimensions and levels. These will be particularly useful for students achieving above or below the expected level.

When considering assessment, plan for assessment for, as and of learning. While it is important to monitor student progress, consider how you can do this while developing a classroom culture that encourages and rewards risk-taking and experimentation. When developing assessment tasks, consider whether they are assessing concepts and higher order thinking?, rather than just content recall. Aim for assessment that is designed to make student thinking visible.

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Expert authors

The Mathematics Developmental Continuum P-10 was developed by a team of expert mathematics education researchers, led by Professor Kaye Stacey from The University of Melbourne. The team has extensive experience into learning and teaching in mathematics; all team members have had extensive classroom teaching experience.

Team:

The University of Melbourne

  • Lynda Ball
  • Helen Chick
  • Catherine Pearn
  • Kaye Stacey
  • Vicki Steinle

Monash University

  • Peter Sullivan

Mathematics Association of Victoria

  • Ian Lowe