Back in the days before lockdown, I delivered a face-to-face professional development session for teachers that explored ways to build up students’ confidence and resilience in maths. The session was developed in response to a few local schools who were becoming exasperated by some students’ negative attitude to maths, and their general lack of perseverance.
The face-to-face Building Resilience sessions were popular and very well-received, so I have recently reconfigured them for remote delivery: these live online sessions have also proved to be popular, with one delegate even saying it was, “the best online CPD” she’d ever been on!
During our most recent session, delegates discussed the top three reasons why they thought some pupils sometimes ‘give up’ on a maths question, don’t even start it, or have a negative or defeatist attitude about maths lessons generally. What would your top three reasons be?
The session then explored strategies to combat this, including fostering a growth mindset culture, the use of positive language, and pedagogical approaches to develop confidence in pupils.
If this sounds like something that you’d like to learn more about, please contact me via your local Area Coordinator and we’ll see if there is an opportunity to run an online session in your area.
By Adrian Hall