by DAVID CHINOFUNGA

Mathematics education researchers have focused a lot of attention on improving classroom practise to enhance students’ engagement and achievement. This is noble and beneficial. But when reports started surfacing in secondary education that parents were complaining their children who used to get very high grades in lower levels maths were failing at senior levels, we start asking – how could this happen? The answer is planning.

In educational planning, prior knowledge is the foundation of effective teaching and learning. It should therefore be given equal status in course design. Educators understand that students learn better when prior knowledge is linked to new knowledge because it creates a smoother transition to the acquisition of new learning. However, this understanding tends not to be as influential as it should in educational planning. For example, in secondary education, the focus frequently defaults to “at level” new content, as prescribed in official curriculum documentation.

Assessing prior knowledge has long been touted as an essential precursor to new knowledge acquisition also because it provides educators with the opportunity to gauge what students bring to their new learning environment. However, the efficacy of any pre-existing knowledge assessment is considerably reduced if necessary prior concepts have not been mapped during the course planning phase to new concepts. If not constructed carefully, some foundational concepts may be overlooked entirely.

Realising the role that prior knowledge plays during teaching and learning of new knowledge, researchers at James Cook University have developed a framework for content sequencing from junior to senior maths. The framework emphasises the importance of mapping prior concepts to new concepts during maths curricular planning.

While developed for secondary education, this approach is readily transferable to higher education because maths is an essentially hierarchical subject; maths concepts develop and interlink as teaching and learning progresses. Moreover, the rigours of university maths study involve the application of quantitative concepts, which demand that students are able to apply the skills and knowledge learnt pre-university, including in enabling education, to the undergraduate level and beyond.

The framework will go a long way towards addressing some of the challenges inherent in maths teaching and learning at the tertiary level as it encourages content sequencing and highlights that prior knowledge must be a key component of curriculum planning for student success in maths-dependent undergraduate programs.

David Chinofunga, PhD Candidate, Mathematics Education, James Cook University [email protected]