Teaching mathematics

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Teaching mathematics provided by OpenLearn is a comprehensive online course, which lasts for 24 hours worth of material. Upon completion of the course, you can receive an e-certificate from OpenLearn. The course is taught in Englishand is Free Certificate. Visit the course page at OpenLearn for detailed price information.

Overview
  • This free course, Teaching mathematics, has been designed for non-specialist mathematics teachers of 8 to 14 year olds, teaching assistants, home schoolers and parents and draws on the ...

Syllabus
    • Introduction and guidance
    • Introduction and guidance
    • What is a badged open course?
    • How to get a badge
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week1Week 1: Teaching and learning: whole numbers and decimals
    • Introduction
    • Learning outcomes
    • 1 How children develop number sense
    • 1.1 Learning to count and counting effectively
    • 1.2 Making the connection between quantity and number
    • 1.3 Part-whole relationships and number bonds
    • 1.4 Understanding that addition and subtraction are inverses of each other
    • 1.5 Moving on from counting and working out relationships between quantities
    • 2 Developing mental methods
    • 2.1 Using number bonds to 10, 20, 100
    • 2.2 Mental addition and subtraction strategies
    • 2.3 Mental multiplication and division strategies
    • Understanding division problems
    • Division by partitioning can be a useful strategy
    • Multiplication tables
    • Developing mental arithmetic with your learners
    • 3 Developing formal written calculation methods
    • 3.1 Formal written methods of addition
    • 3.2 Formal written methods for subtraction
    • 3.3 Multiplication and division
    • 4 The concept of place value and decimals
    • 4.1 The decimal point and calculations with decimals
    • 4.2 Becoming familiar with decimals
    • 5 This week’s quiz
    • 6 Summary of Week 1
    • Further reading
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week2Week 2: Teaching and learning: percentages and fractions
    • Introduction
    • Learning outcomes
    • 1 Equivalence as a concept applied to fractions, decimals and percentages
    • 1.1 Diagrammatic representations of equivalence
    • The fraction wall
    • 1.2 Challenges to understanding the equivalence between fractions
    • 2 Approaches to teaching fractions
    • 2.1 What are fractions?
    • 2.2 Ordering fractions
    • 2.3 Adding and subtracting fractions
    • 2.4 Multiplying fractions
    • 2.5 Dividing fractions
    • 3 Approaches to teaching percentages
    • 3.1 Calculating percentages of amounts
    • 3.2 Percentage change: using multiplying factors
    • 3.3 Finding the original amount when given the result of a percentage change
    • 3.4 Using multiplying factors to find an original amount given the result of a percentage change
    • 4 This week’s quiz
    • 5 Summary of Week 2
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week3Week 3: Developing understanding of proportion and ratio
    • Introduction
    • Learning outcomes
    • 1 Developing proportional reasoning and an appreciation of multiplicative structure
    • 1.1 Additive versus multiplicative thinking
    • 1.2 When to use multiplicative thinking
    • 1.3 Developing learners’ proportional reasoning
    • 1.4 Using concrete resources
    • Teaching idea: Cooking with ratios
    • 1.5 Moving to abstract thinking and using pictorial representations
    • 2 Problem solving using proportional reasoning, including common misconceptions
    • 2.1 Problem solving using proportional reasoning
    • Teaching idea: School or home map
    • Best buys
    • Exchange rates
    • Mixtures and solutions
    • Teaching idea: A giant’s hand investigation
    • 2.2 Common misconceptions with proportional reasoning problems
    • Proportional problem 1: Soup
    • Proportional problem 2: Sharing the workload
    • Proportional problem 3: Paint
    • Proportional problem 4: Printing press
    • Proportional problem 5: Bookshop
    • 2.3 Teaching to address common misconceptions
    • 3 Connecting ratio and proportional reasoning
    • 3.1 Using simple ratios to make comparisons
    • Using manipulatives
    • 3.2 Connecting ratio and proportion
    • 3.3 Using ratio tables
    • 3.4 Continuing to develop learners’ proportional reasoning
    • 4 This week’s quiz
    • 5 Summary of Week 3
    • Further reading
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week4Week 4: Introducing algebra
    • Introduction
    • Learning outcomes
    • 1 Mathematical sentences and algebraic expressions
    • 1.1 Writing algebraic expressions
    • 1.2 Expressions and terms
    • 2 Finding the general in the particular
    • 2.1 Representations
    • 2.2 Indeterminacy: moving from specific unknowns to variables
    • 2.3 Comparing algebraic expressions
    • 3 The equals sign
    • 3.1 Relational understandings
    • 3.2 Always, sometimes, never true?
    • 4 This week’s quiz
    • 5 Summary of Week 4
    • Further reading
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week5Week 5: Introducing functions and graphs
    • Introduction
    • Learning outcomes
    • 1 Function machines
    • 2 Sequences as functions
    • 2.1 Term-to-term and position-to-term rules
    • 2.2 Generalising with sequences
    • Changing shapes
    • 2.3 Changing numbers
    • 2.4 Looking at structure in a sequence
    • 2.5 Summary
    • 3 Extending functions: variables and graphs
    • 3.1 Variables
    • 3.2 Increasing and decreasing graphs
    • Linear graphs
    • 3.3 The exponential function
    • 4 This week’s quiz
    • 5 Summary of Week 5
    • Further reading
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week6Week 6: Teaching and learning about geometry
    • Introduction
    • Learning outcomes
    • 1 How children think and reason about geometric shapes
    • 1.1 Progression in geometric thinking
    • Thinking holistically
    • Moving on to description
    • 1.2 Defining shapes using flexible definitions
    • 1.3 The visual or physical representation of shapes
    • 2 Investigating the properties of triangles and quadrilaterals
    • 2.1 Triangles
    • 2.2 Quadrilaterals
    • 3 Developing problem-solving skills in geometry
    • 3.1 Polyominoes
    • Pentominoes as an activity with learners
    • 3.2 Ideas for tasks using four cubes
    • 3.3 Enlarging shapes using repeating tiles
    • 4 This week’s quiz
    • 5 Summary of Week 6
    • References
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week7Week 7: Developing understanding about using measures
    • Introduction
    • Learning outcomes
    • 1 Measures and measuring
    • 1.1 Measuring scales
    • 1.2 The historic development of measures
    • Imperial measures of length
    • Imperial measures of weight
    • Imperial measures of volume (liquid capacity)
    • 1.3 The metric system
    • 1.4 Useful ‘rough’ metric to imperial equivalences
    • 1.5 Everyday measures
    • 1.6 Extending measures to compound measures
    • 2 Reading measures and accuracy
    • 2.1 Measuring scales
    • 2.2 Degrees of accuracy in measurement
    • 3 Teaching angle measures and angle facts
    • 3.1 Using a protractor to measure angles
    • 3.2 Angle sum of triangles
    • 4 Teaching about area and volume
    • 4.1 Area
    • Using the area formula for a rectangle to derive other area formulas
    • 4.2 Converting square metres into square centimetres
    • 4.3 Volume
    • 4.4 Converting cubic centimetres into cubic metres
    • 5 This week’s quiz
    • 6 Summary of Week 7
    • Further reading
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week8Week 8: Working with data and uncertainty
    • Introduction
    • Learning outcomes
    • 1 Collecting data and illustrating it in charts
    • 1.1 Collecting data
    • 1.2 Population and sampling
    • 1.3 Questionnaires
    • 1.4 Tally charts and frequency charts
    • 1.5 Grouping data
    • 1.6 Two-way tables
    • 1.7 Discrete and continuous data
    • 1.8 Grouping continuous data
    • 1.9 Stem and leaf diagrams
    • 2 Developing data sense and forming sensible conclusions
    • 2.1 Statistical thinking and the PCAI cycle
    • 2.2 Analysing data using measures of central tendency and spread
    • Teaching idea: People maths
    • 2.3 Comparing distributions and making sensible conclusions
    • 3 Charts and graphs as visual representations of data
    • 3.1 Basic charts and graphs
    • Pictograms
    • Bar charts
    • Other types of bar chart
    • 3.2 Pie charts
    • Teaching idea: Do Smarties® have the answer?
    • 3.3 Scatter graphs
    • Interpreting correlation
    • 3.4 Misleading correlation
    • 4 Addressing common misconceptions with probability
    • 4.1 Equal likelihood
    • 4.2 Gambler’s fallacy
    • 4.3 Sample space considerations
    • 4.4 Spinners
    • 4.5 Building misconceptions into your teaching
    • 5 Making the connections between theoretical and experimental probability
    • 5.1 Experimental probability
    • 5.2 Relative frequency
    • 5.3 Calculating theoretical probability
    • 5.4 Comparing experimental probability with theoretical probability
    • 5.5 Estimating probability
    • 6 This week’s quiz
    • 7 Summary of Week 8
    • 8 Conclusion
    • Tell us what you think
    • Further reading
    • Acknowledgements