Who Wants Education-Industry Links Anyway?Author(s): Ivor ClevesSource: Mathematics in School, Vol. 20, No. 3 (May, 1991), pp. 36-37Published by: The Mathematical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30214806 .

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British

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Any!way by Ivor Cleves, University of Bath

A great deal of money is spent by publishers in putting information on the latest materials aimed at enhancing teaching into schools. In recent years one target has been teachers of mathematics who wish to relate some of their teaching to ideas from the workplace. Contextual materials have been published which relate more or less to the workplace. However, doubt has been expressed as to whether, or to what extent, these materials are being used ... or whether teachers even know about them.

To examine these doubts BP Education sponsored the "Practical Maths Project". I have been running this project at the University of Bath whilst on secondment from the George Ward Comprehensive School, Melksham, Wiltshire, where I am Senior Teacher (and was Director of Mathematics). The project has aimed to look not just at the questions indicated above, but also at what teachers feel generally about the idea of workplace-related mathem- atics teaching materials and their use. A further interest has been in how teaching based in this area could best be developed.

Disappointment The project's initial findings revealed what might be seen as a disappointing picture, at least insofar as the publishing industry is concerned! A questionnaire sent to mathematics teachers in counties throughout England (you might even have received and returned one yourself!) surveyed their knowledge and awareness of 22 published workplace-re- lated resources. Of the 300 or so who responded, more than three-quarters had heard of less than half of these items. Indeed, there was only one teacher who had heard

of all of the items. There was no-one, though, who admitted to having heard of none of them! Another teacher, on seeing the selection of resources that had been collected by the project up to that point, was heard to remark that he felt very deprived. He had had no idea that there was so much of this type of material around. Of course, many of the teachers replying might have actually encountered these materials in the past, but had forgotten about them. What does this say about the impact made on teachers by the materials? A remark made by another teacher indicates how some teachers may feel about resources such as these:

... if they were any good we'd have heard about them down the grapevine.

And wouldn't they at least have remembered them? In order further to explore feelings about these publica-

tions groups of teachers were brought together to examine them in more detail. Working in groups of two or three they were given time to examine individual resource items (how many teachers have any sort of uninterrupted time available to form their initial impressions of all the materials that publishers push at them?). Much of the material proved to be "memorable". But there was also much that did not. The results of many groups' examinations of each of these items, and of others which have either surfaced, or been published, since have been collated. This collation will form the basis of a teacher's guide to resources of this type, to what other professionals think about them. Further work has been done to relate them to the requirements of GCSE and of the National Curriculum and to indicate what workplaces are featured in them. If teachers who subsequently receive this guide have sufficient time to read it (!) it is hoped that it will help them in assessing such materials for their own use.

36 Mathematics in School, May 1991

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Clearly Relevant? As well as looking at what might be called nationally available materials parts of the questionnaire were also designed to find out how teachers feel anyway about using this sort of material. Does "the workplace" have a place in mathematics teaching? If so, what is that place? Replies indicate that many teachers base the use of contextual (in particular, workplace-related) teaching materials on the "fact" that the contextual basis adds what they call "relev- ance" to the basic subject material; they consider that it "motivates" their pupils.

But on the basis of the responses received "relevance" and "motivation" seem to be very ill-defined and ill-used notions. In past issues of this journal3'4 articles have looked at the idea of "relevance", and how it affects the work which is given to pupils. How does the teacher's concept of "relevance" lead her or him to package what is taught? Packaging which the teacher sees as "relevant", will, it is hoped, be "motivating" for the pupils.

But how often do we find that we have failed to engage our pupils? For instance, everyone at some time or another has tried to use topics such as insurance, or buying a motor bike, as part of their maths lessons. This is generally done on the basis that such things will form part of the everday life of these pupils later. They will therefore perceive them as important and engaging. In other words, they are "relevant" and will "motivate". How many teachers of mathematics have tried to involve their less-able 5th year pupils in maths by using these topics, or similar, only to find that the lesson goes down like a lead balloon? It appears doubtful whether these terms, "relevance" and "motivation", as they are frequently used or conceived, are actually helpful for the teacher in thinking about the activity of pupils in the classroom. The problems presented by the use of these words, are being explored, with the aim of shedding some helpful light on classroom practice for the future.

Arithmetic or Maths? Data already obtained also reveals that much still needs to be done to get across a true picture of how school maths and the world of work can best fit together. The CBI Business/Education Task Force2 suggests that what indus- try requires for the future is entrants who have the skills encompassed by the phrase "the four rules". But they must also have other mathematical skills (and skills from other disciplines) which will make them flexible thinkers, and thus can be retrained as necessary in the future.

However, for a large proportion of the teachers who responded to the survey the workplace is still seen in terms of its (local) needs. The formal mathematics in the majority of workplaces is largely "basic arithmetic-al" in nature (and even then much of it is carried through by idiosyn- cratic methods). "The workplace" is thus commonly used for teaching and re-teaching low-level computational skills dignified by the name "mathematics" (regardless of the fact that the algorithms taught in the schoolroom often bear little perceptible relation, at least to this type of pupil, to the maths that they will end up using where they work). In particular this seems to be the case when teachers think of the mathematical needs of 4th and 5th year pupils of low ability.

But what about the needs of brighter pupils? Opinion of the teachers surveyed is that a high proportion of the published materials is actually aimed at pupils of lesser ability. In the main it is just such arithmetic exercises. Is it surprising then that the general feeling seems to be that exam pressures and demands for academic progress don't allow time for teachers to use workplace-related material with their brighter pupils? Even much higher-level "overt

maths" within the workplace is still heavily loaded towards computation (though maybe of a more complex nature). However, valiant efforts are being made by some groups to produce materials which go beyond this conception of maths. They are trying to search out those elements of what goes on in the workplace which can provide pupils with wider mathematical targets.

The project has been collecting and analysing case studies of the work of groups working at all levels. It is the intention that analysis of good practice in this area will be disseminated, in order that others can be helped into this area of work without having always to "re-invent the wheel". Teachers might then be helped to see ways of involving ideas other than computation in work they de- velop on the basis of whatever links they might establish with local workplaces.

To the World of Work? If we belive, or at least accept, that there are pupil benefits from teaching which has one foot in the workplace (80% of the teachers surveyed said that they do) then such help is clearly needed. About threequarters of the teachers surveyed stated that they had had no workplace experience which they felt was usable in their teaching. Further, more than half of these stated that they had had no workplace experience at all outside teaching. There are teachers who have been able to gain workplace experience which they have been able to draw back into their classrooms. But many who responded to the survey indicated that there would be great problems for them in doing this. In particular this was felt to be due to lack of time, and also to a lack of an initial familiarity with what happens in "the workplace".

Project findings do indicate that the willingness and interest are there, that workplace-related mathematics is of interest to teachers, and is seen by pupils and employers as having value for a variety of reasons beyond the simply vocational. The requirement for work in the classroom to involve consideration of cross-curricular themes (in par- ticular economic and industrial awareness) presents a fur- ther incentive. It might allow a higher profile to be granted to this sort of work by schools. More time might then be made available to develop resources on an other than ad hoc basis which will aid not just the development of EIU, but also assist pupils to a better grasp of mathematics.

Outcomes There are many areas of discussion here about the value, advisability or feasibility of using the workplace in this context. Not least are considerations about the value of teaching within a context, and the "binding" effect this may have on the mathematical skills. Tied to this also must be thinking about the concept of transfer of training. But in the end it is hoped that a clearer, more lucid and more extensive picture will be revealed of the contribution that "the workplace" (as one of a variety of contexts and "methods") can make to mathematics teaching.

References 1. Bailey, D. et al (1981) Mathematics in Employment (16-18). University

of Bath. 2. CBI (1988) Building a Stronger Partnership Between Business and

Secondary Education; CBI, London. 3. Haylock, D. et al (1985) Using Maths to Make Things Happen,

Mathematics in School, 13, 2. 4. Lopez-Real, F. (1983) Meaningful Reflections, Mathematics in School,

12, 5.

Mathematics in School, May 1991 37

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