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A shocking number of students across all grade levels are not demonstrating proficiency in math, to the point that more Ivy League students than ever require remedial math, and the problem can be traced to how math is taught. What can teachers do to address this pressing issue?

During the edLeader Panel “Effective Math Instruction: What It Is and How to Do It,” Amanda VanDerHeyden, Ph.D., a former school district leader and the founder and CPO of SpringMath Accelerate, talked about math instruction, the problems with how it’s taught, and how educators can help.

Quality math education starts with teachers. When they understand the sciences of learning and instruction, they can better provide instructions, monitor responses, and adjust as needed. Otherwise, they’re left dependent on potentially flawed curricula. Ultimately, teachers must understand how learning works in order to reach students.

The 3 Phases of Math Learning

Math learning happens across three phases. The first is Acquisition, when students are first exposed to ideas and require more teacher support. Here, teacher modeling and guided practice help students better understand materials and how to ask for help. Students move on to the next step when they can independently provide accurate answers.

The next phase is Fluency. Students give accurate responses, but it takes time and effort. The goal of fluency is to make responding easier. The easier it is for students to respond to problems, the more they can think about what they’re doing. Fluency enables understanding of concepts and lets students apply them to different tasks. They move on when they can answer accurately and quickly.

The last phase is Generalization/Adaptation, where students are fluent in the skill, respond quickly and accurately to problems, and use what they’ve learned on tasks they weren’t directly taught. Usually, they can do this without instruction. They retain skills and concepts and can adapt to different problems. Here, teachers help students learn to prevent errors, correct mistakes, and see what makes answers correct.

It is critical that these three phases are followed to ensure students retain and master concepts, especially the earliest concepts, as all math proficiency is built on understanding foundational skills.

The Issues with Current Curricula

The issue with how math is usually taught is that many math curricula are not designed according to the principles of effective instructional design. It often has minimal impact on student achievement and only gives students what they need to get through class, without them retaining information. Often, the curricula don’t have enough Fluency work.

Additionally, students fall through cracks because most curricula focus predominantly on accuracy over retention. Instead of going through the three phases of math learning, teachers are encouraged to look at students who are giving accurate responses early on, assume they understand the material, and then move on. However, those students quickly forget the skills and can’t use them to address more complex content.

Additionally, most poorly designed math instruction is implicit rather than explicit and overly complicated, making it harder for students to understand content or retain material. Furthermore, widespread calculator usage in early math classes hinders basic skill development, ensuring later struggles.

What Teachers Can Do

So how can teachers best reach students? A Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) is vital. By starting with universal math screenings and assessments, teachers can find which students need help. Classwide intervention, a 15-minute daily protocol for the whole class, follows a scripted routine and provides practice material, helping the whole class while identifying students in need of individualized intervention. Teachers can then pair struggling students with higher performing students to work together to master materials.

Classwide intervention is highly effective, with math classes that use it having much higher pass rates than those that don’t. While accurate screening is helpful, it can still miss struggling students. An MTSS reduces the risk of missing struggling students who did well early and creates opportunities to help the whole class.

Teachers want students to succeed, so it’s time to look at how math is taught and ways to improve it. By considering how students learn math and incorporating MTSS into the classroom, teachers give students the math skills needed to thrive on whatever path life leads them.

Learn more about this edWeb broadcast, Effective Math Instruction: What It Is and How to Do It, sponsored by SpringMath Accelerate.

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Join the Community

Building Understanding in Mathematics is a free professional learning community that provides a platform, advice and support in helping educators learn methods that help students build understanding in mathematics.

SpringMath Accelerate is an MTSS solution designed to improve math achievement for all students through a comprehensive system of screening and progress-monitoring assessments, classwide and individual interventions, and data-driven decision-making tools. SpringMath Accelerate empowers teachers by automatically interpreting data, pinpointing specific skill gaps, and providing recommendations for instructional next steps, each and every week, so all students achieve grade-level foundational skills mastery.

Article by Jon Scanlon, based on this edLeader Panel