We Value Mathematical Dialogue

"The ability to communicate lies at the heart of reasoning."

educationblog.oup.com

We strive to develop brave and eager mathematicians who possess the tools to think mathematically. In order to do this, we work hard to develop each child's ability to use dialogue to help them to:

• support each other (and in doing so, develop their own understanding too)
• seek more information, examples, clarification, etc., to understand for themselves
• question their maths so that misconceptions can be tackled
• prove their thinking to enable them to refine their ideas, spot mistakes and refine their methods further
• be curious and ask questions like, "What if..." and spot connections and link ideas
• be flexible and willing to adapt ideas and approaches in the light of new thinking and knowledge

The power of thinking and not giving up

Underpinning these aims is for children to actively participate in thinking - get involved! In so doing, the children can be persistent in their thinking, using all of the above strategies to reason, problem-solve, check their outcomes and become more efficient mathematicians.

Mathematical Dialogue Stems

According to Dawes, prompts increase a child's repertoire of spoke language; they are a powerful tool to support engagement with their own understanding and encourage deep learning. Therefore, children have progressive prompts developed by teachers as part of their professional development (shown on this page and available through the documents at the bottom). These are used in phases (Y1/2, Y3/4 and Y5/6) and help the children to go beyond basic discussions,  to using mathematical dialogue as the catalyst for vastly improved reasoning (Askew). 

Rich opportunities