There are many reasons why the Core Maths course is such an exciting and invigorating course to teach. By centring maths within context, the Core Maths student gets to experience how maths provides a set of tools with which to understand the world; for many on this course this can be transformative and, in many cases, alters their perception of what maths is. Core Maths students will often go on to see maths as a way to strengthen arguments, reach conclusions and evaluate effectiveness, and develop curiosity and explore situations that are intrinsically interesting or relevant to them.
Placing context at the heart of Core Maths means that, in delivering the course, you may be missing a trick if you’re not collaborating with other subject areas. Core Maths is a particularly good fit with quantitative based courses such as A level Geography, Psychology, Biology and Business Studies, as well as many of the level 3 vocational awards. The AMSP has joined forces with various other subject organisations – so far, we’re working with The Royal Geographical Society, The Association for Science Education, and The Association for the Teaching of Psychology – to explore how the Core Maths course might best support the learning of maths in other subjects.
Some of our findings and experiences from these projects have informed the development of our Core Maths Across the Curriculum session, which we ran for the first time in the South West region in mid-November last year. A number of teachers from across Somerset and Dorset came to the session and shared their experiences and ideas, and the benefits and challenges of working across subjects at level 3. We explored a number of tasks that could act as a springboard to working with other subjects, and considered and discussed some key assessment questions that highlighted the demanding nature of using maths at this level.
As a result of the success of this session, we’ve decided to run it again on Tuesday 5 April 2022. If it sounds like something you’d find interesting and/or useful, please join us online, whether you’re a teacher of Core Maths or not!