Comments From C.A.N. Teachers

The C.A.N. report is liberally sprinkled with quotes from teachers, head teachers and others who evaluated the project. The samples below suggest many of the benefits that have derived from adopting and working with the C.A.N. philosophy to enhance children's number sense.

Page 9 - Head Teacher

• The spreading of the CAN philosophy in school has been rapidly accelerated by the movement of an experienced teacher who was involved in the first year of CAN with a class of six and seven-year-olds, to a reception class of four and five-year-olds. This teacher has used the methods, and many of the activities and ideas that she developed with her six and seven-year-olds, with great success. This approach has spread sideways, as the two other reception teachers have seen how the children have developed mathematically.

CCh Comment:

(a) the children did develop mathematically (and noticeably so) when they had free access to calculators, materials and other guiding principles of the CAN project

(b) the activities and ideas the teacher used were rich enough to be applied over several ages of students

(c) good education spreads within a school by seeding experienced, enthusiastic teachers throughout the staff

Page 9 - Teacher

• It has changed my way of teaching maths, even in such a short time. I look at things differently. The CAN approach is very different from what I've done before.

CCh Comment:

Perhaps this will not be the case for all teachers. The comment is preceded by a description of the teaching style which tended to develop when the CAN philosophy was instituted:

 

'The teaching style which has developed has given the children autonomy in their learning, allowing them to find their own ways of tackling problems, and their own mental and non-calculator methods of calculation. The teachers have been very resourceful in devising activities, and in encouraging a problem-solving and investigational approach which does not constrain the children.'

 

Teachers who already work this way are more likely to subsume the Calculating Changes approach within their teaching style than to radically alter their style.

Page 10 - Head Teacher

• The project has developed during its lifetime. From the initial concept of a calculator-based curriculum within the 'number' aspect of mathematics it has broadened, first into all the other areas of mathematics and then beyond mathematics itself.

CCh Comment:

Perhaps valuing and building on children's efforts to learn, rather than encouraging digestion of adult chosen and perfected techniques, shows children that they are respected and encourages them to show their thinking in a wider range of areas.

Page 10 - Teacher

• I'm constantly amazed at how much further on they are compared with following a traditional scheme. Previously I would never have found out what children can really do ... about their understanding of large numbers.

CCh Comment:

Teachers learning from children who have been released to construct their own learning is a key element in the professional development component of Calculating Changes.