school management
Prior experience or knowledge is the foundation of effective teaching .
Ukrainian schoolchildren in the Kharkiv region during the Russian invasion . Photo : Sergey Bobok / AFP
Planning ahead
Lessons from Ukraine on the importance of planning .
By David Chinofunga
Whatever happens , and however the war will end in Ukraine , the world has learnt a lot . It is not only the military , politicians and economists who can draw lessons from this war but also educationists .
Education researchers , especially mathematics education researchers , have focused much of their research on improving classroom practice to enhance students ’ engagement and achievement .
This is noble and beneficial , but from what we have so far witnessed in Ukraine the most important contributor for success is planning . Russians , having spent the past two decades re-equipping their military with advanced weapon systems , led the world to believe that Kyiv would fail in days because the Ukrainians are outgunned .
Results were expected to favour the Russians because they have tools of engagement which are far superior and achievement was predictable . This of course was not the case , Kyiv withstood the military assault and we are now left with the question – how did Ukraine prevail ? Planning . In project management they say the secret of productivity is planning .
Planning does not only focus on how execution is done but most importantly sequencing events or concepts so as to hypothesise how execution can be efficient and effective . Obviously , both Russia and Ukraine have military planners and have both been planning how to execute the war , considering hostilities started in 2014 .
The difference is which team has mastered the integration of available resources ( superior or not ) and past experiences to counter how the other will wage war . Experience is the best teacher , the experience the Ukrainians received from 2014 helped them and their allies to plan and prepare for a new Russian invasion . Prior experience or knowledge is the foundation of effective teaching and learning , hence it should also be given equal status in educational planning .
Educators understand students learn better when prior knowledge is linked to new knowledge , creating a smooth transition of knowledge . However , this understanding may not be influencing how educators plan , as the focus might be at the content level , as provided in official curriculum documents when developing planning . Assessing prior knowledge has been touted as an essential part of teaching and learning as it provides educators with the opportunity to gauge what students are bringing to class .
It is noble and necessary to assess , but if the prior concepts have not been mapped during planning there is a chance of overlooking some concepts that maybe seen as peripheral but still playing a significant foundational role in aiding students ’ understanding of new concepts . We saw reports surfacing that parents were complaining that students who used to get very high grades in year 10 mathematics were failing in the new Queensland calculus-based options .
Realising the role prior knowledge plays during teaching and learning of new knowledge , researchers at James Cook University developed a framework on content sequencing from junior to senior mathematics . The framework emphasises the importance of mapping prior concepts to new concepts during planning in mathematics .
This is because mathematics is a hierarchical subject and concepts develop and interlink as teaching and learning progresses . Although the Australian curriculum guide the learning and teaching of mathematics for P-10 , states have the responsibility to develop their own senior high school curriculum .
Despite the fact that planning is schoolbased in Australia , there is no framework that guides the mapping of critical prior concepts ( P-10 ) to senior secondary concepts across all mathematics options . In fact , teachers are only given templates and exemplars to follow in designing teaching and learning plans or unit plans .
This framework will go a long way in addressing some of the challenges in teaching and learning of mathematics as it encourages collaborative content sequencing and highlight that prior knowledge must be part of planning for it to be used effectively . ■
David Chinofunga is a PhD Candidate in Mathematics Education at James Cook University .
20 | educationreview . com . au