Teacher guide Primary Mathematics Specialists initiative

TLF ID S7056

This is a teacher resource describing a strategy to train 81 teachers as primary mathematics specialists (PMS) to improve numeracy standards in 27 primary schools in Victoria identified as having significant numbers of students performing below the state average. It includes a method section that explains the basis for selection of the PMS, outlines the professional learning they undertook to improve their numeracy pedagogical content knowledge and describes their subsequent role in working with primary teachers. The resource describes the results in detail including enhanced expertise of the specialists and improvement in student learning outcomes. It discusses the next steps and lessons learned and provides references to relevant readings.





Educational details

Educational value
  • This resource may be of some use in supporting the mathematics learning area. The resource describes the characteristics of effective specialist teachers and the role of the primary mathematics specialists (PMS) in their work with teachers. This role included developing clear goals and processes, using data to inform and support their work, using innovative approaches to access a wide range of resources and supporting the idea of continuous professional learning as vital to increasing pedagogical content knowledge.
  • This resource is useful in highlighting the importance of the primary mathematics specialists (PMS) receiving strong support from the school leadership team. It relates the degree of student achievement to the strength of implementation of the initiative, suggesting reasons for the greater success of some schools. It also provides guidelines for supporting strong implementation of this type of initiative in the future.
Year level

F; 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6

Other details

Contributors
  • Contributor
  • Name: Education Services Australia
  • Organization: Education Services Australia
  • Description: Data manager
  • Copyright Holder
  • Name: Commonwealth of Australia
  • Organization: Commonwealth of Australia
  • Address: AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.australia.gov.au
  • Publisher
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organization: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Description: Publisher
  • Address: AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.esa.edu.au
  • Resource metadata contributed by
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organisation: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Address: AUSTRALIA
  • URL: www.esa.edu.au
Access profile
  • Generic
Learning Resource Type
  • Online
  • Text
Rights
  • © 2014 Commonwealth of Australia, unless otherwise indicated. This material is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike licence (CC BY-SA 3.0 AU) unless otherwise indicated. You may distribute, remix and build upon this material, provided that you include the acknowledgement '© Commonwealth of Australia 2014' and license under the same terms any new creations you have based on the material.