The Education Minister is standing by recent changes to the school maths curriculum, despite concern from some educators who say they’ve been “blindsided” by the scale of the updates.
Several teachers and academics are calling for the rollout to be delayed, saying schools need more time to prepare for what they see as substantial changes to the content being taught for years 0 to 10.
Porirua College’s head of mathematics, Jennifer Crisp, said she was surprised at how different the final version was from the draft she and other teachers had provided feedback on.
“This is a new new curriculum. I wrote many pages of feedback on the original draft maths curriculum with my thoughts about that and I went back to them and had a read, and it’s almost entirely different from what I originally gave feedback on,” she told 1News.
Some educators say they have been “blind-sided” by the changes which are “far from minor”. (Source: 1News)
Crisp said some topics have been pushed to earlier year levels, concerned it will make it harder for students to keep up.
“They’ve taken a piece of algebra that we would normally teach at Year 12 and moved it down to Year 10. So in order to get students ready for that in Year 10, a lot has had to be moved much earlier.”
University of Auckland mathematics education lecturer Lisa Darragh said several key areas have also been removed.
“The statistical enquiry cycle has been removed, and probability has been taken out of the first number of years of schooling. And this is somewhat ironic because New Zealand tends to do really well in statistics.”
Education officials said the changes were made after careful consideration of teacher feedback and international comparisons.
Pauline Cleaver from the Ministry of Education said the final version aims to ensure learning is pitched at the right level.
“The changes reflect what we heard from teachers, and they also reflect understanding whether we’ve got the maths learning pitched at the right level compared to what students in other countries are learning.”
Education Minister Erica Stanford rejected suggestions the curriculum update is a complete overhaul, saying it’s largely a refinement of what teachers already know.
“We have been out for consultation. We have had it embedded for a year. We have taken on board feedback and we’ve made changes.”
She said some content has shifted between year levels but it’s not unfamiliar territory for teachers.
“We’ve shifted some things around slightly and teachers who teach mathematics understand and know mathematics. We’ve not created any brand-new content that they’ve not seen before. So, for example, taking probability and moving it out of the junior school at primary and pulling the 12 times table in.”
Darragh and Crisp are among those urging the Government to pause the rollout to allow schools more time to adjust.
“Pause the change, let them bed down the one that they’ve got,” Darragh said.
Crisp agreed, saying the pace of change risks overwhelming students.
“It will simply be too much for my students.”
