Contemporary Teacher Leadership – Project Proposal

Project Team Number – Monday 5PM 2A

Mariam Anny 18653117

Fatoum Zreika 17532932

Ethan Green 18498514

James La 18003723

Zaynab Taha 18656435

Title: Improving achievement and appreciation for mathematical literacy through building a
numerate community.

The strand: Building a Numerate Community

Background

Numeracy is an essential general capability needed to succeed in life. This programme

recognises that a numerate school community needs the engagement of staff, students,
student homes and members of the wider community. While some interventions utilise a
whole school approach, the focus on teaching and learning initiatives will be on year 7
students. This is to ensure a manageable project, that focuses on a cycle of change where one
year group grows to indicate strategies for future success.

Scenario

Colyton High School is a Western Sydney secondary school located near St. Marys. Over
70% of the school’s socio-educational advantage is distributed in the bottom quartile. Of the
school’s 770 students, 11% are from Indigenous backgrounds and 42% have a language
background other than English. Numeracy results in NAPLAN are well below the national
average as shown in figure 1 and are seeing a drop below students with a similar background
in year 7 displayed in figure 2 (ACARA, n.d.). Utilising evidence-based strategies, the
programme is designed to engage all aspects of the diverse school community in targeted
interventions to produce a numerate community.

Figure 1: NAPLAN results comparing similar students.

Figure 2: NAPLAN results comparing all students.

Project Plan

(a) Goal of the action research project to be undertaken outside the faculty.

● Increase collaborative learning with other faculties and promote a disposition towards
critical thinking in numeracy across the curriculum.
● Enhance academic achievement across internal assessments and learning with a focus
on year 7.
● Engage the school community in numeracy development and activities.

(b) Type of intervention that you intend to undertake?

In order to create a numerate community for Colyton High School, there are four main groups
to target, those are the students, teachers, parents and the further community. Below are some
interventions for each group, which if implemented correctly, is believed to aid in creating a
numerate community.

Interventions for Students:

Research has shown that by offering peer mentoring during and/or after school times
improves student mathematical abilities and confidence (Moliner & Alegre, 2020; Rickard &
Mills, 2017; Wilson & Grigorian, 2018). A study conducted by Moliner and Alegre had
compared two groups of students from grades 7 to 9 on how effective implementing a peer
tutoring program would be in combination with teacher lessons. The results showed that
students who were involved in the tutoring program on average had an increase in grades by
approximately 15% compared to the control group (Moliner & Alegre, 2020). Additional
research by Rickard and Mills (2017) as well as Wilson and Grigorian (2018) had produced
similar results with all students participating in the mentoring program coming out with a
positive significant increase in grades.

However, implementing the peer mentoring program is not enough to guarantee success in
building a richer numerate community. It is mentioned that for results to be seen, teachers and
students must have high expectations and be committed to the program (Alegre et al., 2019).
Student academic achievements and performances will increase throughout their educational
career assuming teachers always have high expectations for their students (Centre for
Education Statistics and Evaluation [CESE], 2016, 2020). Taken from the What Works Best
policy, students who are constantly exposed to high expectations are estimated to be ahead in
learning by at least 3 to 6 months (CESE, 2020). In order to build a numerate community, it is
the teacher and tutors’ responsibilities to continuously motivate and encourage students to
perform better. This can be done through strategies that both challenge and support the
student as well as offering feedback, observation, and self-learning (CESE, 2020).

When implementing peer mentoring it is important to note key features that have been proven
to be effective and ineffective practices. Moliner and Alegre (2020) strongly recommend
same age peer mentoring and also reciprocal peer tutoring as an effective method to building
numeracy skills. The result of this showed for the tutee, they were able to receive immediate
feedback, interactive and participative learning, and higher levels of confidence. The tutor on
the other hand, had boosted confidence and also developed a more conceptual understanding
of all topics tutored during the course of the project (Rickard & Mills, 2017). During the
sessions, Alegre et al. (2019) had mentioned that we should be wary of duration times,
frequency students are taking, learning disabilities, and content to be taught during classes.
These factors affect student learning and could potentially harm academic outcomes if set too
long or short as to maximise results as there is a possibility they may forget once leaving the
session.

Implementing peer mentoring will help raise awareness to students and hope to improve
student numeracy abilities. By the end of the program, students will be proficient in
numeracy and have confidence in solving mathematical problems. They also will gain
transferable skills such as being able to teach others effectively, self-learning and higher
levels of confidence in general.

The peer mentoring program will be running weekly and aim to improve student numeracy
across year 7. The peer mentoring program will take place during and after school hours
where selected students will be mentored for the duration of one period. These students will
take part for the entirety of the project or until they wish to no longer take part.

This program will not focus on mathematics exclusively but the skills required in other
subject areas. As numeracy is a learning expectation required across the Australian
Curriculum, we are aiming to improve those skills through the peer mentoring program.
Examples of what this program will focus on include but will not be limited to include
measuring and calculating samples, analysing statistics in the media, analysing weather
reports, creating historical timelines, and so on.

Data for each student will be collected at the end of each lesson and compiled to show their
numeric proficiency improving. This data includes their performance levels, notes left by the
mentor and student, frequency of attendance, and quick surveys at the end of each lesson for
self reflection. If data is to be publicly released, the student’s name and any personal details
will be de-identified before publishing.

Interventions for Teachers:

Teachers will all be engaged in meetings that focus on authentic incorporation of numeracy
within their class activities. This will ensure that students are able to become critical thinkers
and link numeracy with their daily life, empowering students as they act and communicate in
the 21st Century (Goos et al., 2014). More simply, these meetings also help see where
numerical problems relate to students everyday life and give them a better chance of
succeeding across a multitude of areas, such as work life, inquiry and finance. (CESE, 2016;
Travares, 2020). Through implementing numeracy education with young adults, they will be
able to establish a level of reasoning and problem solving that they can transfer to new and
unfamiliar contexts. Finally, they will be able to understand and appreciate how important
numeracy is in relation to understanding different concepts and topics in their other subjects.

Collecting year 7 student’s work and reviewing them will allow us to understand the depth of
numeracy present in different KLAs. Colyton High School’s cross faculty meetings will be
utilised to enable staff to analyse teaching and learning across subjects and offer suggestions
to each other in a safe yet formal manner (CESE, 2016). Work will be collaboratively
analysed to discuss engagement (Errey & Wood, 2011) and the level of critical thinking. A
critical model of numeracy will be adopted to elevate and guide these meetings which is
shown in Figure 3. Students must be engaged and challenged with the work provided in order
to allow the students to become more interested in numeracy and slowly grow a sense of love
for it (Travares, 2020). Further supporting the staff meetings, teachers are able to attend a
seminar intended to demonstrate a heightened incorporation of numeracy across the
curriculum. This seminar is hosted by three staff members from the Department of Education
and provides free resources for teachers to use in their lessons which they may then adopt or
modify (Borko et al., 2014). It is intended through these strategies that the teachers of
Colyton High School form a learning community where the responsibility for improvement is
distributed amongst all teachers and relies on them contributing through their pedagogical
expertise and application of cultural assets (Rooney, 2018). Such a programme can develop
teacher leadership capacity and emphasise the importance of shared data-driven improvement
uniquely glocalised for the specific school context (Lovett et al., 2015).

Figure 3: A model for a critical orientation for numeracy (Goos et. al, 2011)
Interventions for Parents:

Parents are the first and most important influence on their child’s development and
educational progression. When parents are part of the school community, students engage
with their work, have better social and emotional wellbeing, better school attendance records
and have more proactive goals for their future. (Desforges & Abouchaar, 2003). In a study
conducted by Jay et al. an observation was conducted with parents of students from years 7-8
it found parental engagement in the learning of their children is associated with higher levels
of achievement. Government and educational departments have responded to this study
mandating strategies to increase the level of parental engagement (Jay et al., 2018). Parental
support benefits students as they are bolstering their social and emotional wellbeing.

It is important that children foster a different attitude toward mathematics and this change
starts at home. Not all attitudes towards math are positive so the challenge is to change the
ideas parents have regarding mathematics. Bragg et al. (2020) state that there are four themes
relating to good practice that will efficiently integrate parents into their child’s mathematics
education, these themes include: respectful relationships between teachers and parents,
creating a positive conversation around mathematics, make mathematics more accessible and
understandable to parents, also, build strong school to home communication (Bragg et al.,
2020). These themes will be used to develop methods to integrate parents into creating a
numerate community for students.

School and Home Communication

Fostering school and home partnerships is important to enhancing education that is inclusive
and that stretches beyond the classroom. There are a number of ways in which parents can
communicate with schools. Kliman (1999) introduced a study by a Tasmanian school which
had success in fostering communication through take-home activities. (Kliman, 1999, p.143).
This is a positive way in which teachers can foster a school to home communication is
through ‘Numeracy take-home bags’. The design of the program is as follows; their maths
teacher will provide them with a ‘Problem of the Week’ to take home in the allocated bag and
they will engage in the activity weekly with their parents. Teachers will provide a feedback
form for the parent to fill out about any observations they made about their child and what
they need to improve on. The teacher will then work this into the lesson so the student can
teach it to them again and they can understand it better. The feedback forms will be how the
teacher will collect their data for this particular activity. It will be a weekly activity and will
be inclusive of all subjects as long as they can be interpreted into a numeracy problem.

Starting a positive conversation around mathematics

Parents often need support to overcome the avoidance and anxiety they feel around
mathematics. It is not enough to talk positively about numeracy, however, there needs to be a
push to motivate and stimulate parents to be excited about learning numeracy skills with their
child. In order to create a positive conversation around numeracy a workshop called GRIN
from Monash University will be integrated into the students' schooling once every few
weeks. The program has qualified maths tutors that come in and address questions or
numeracy related difficulties (Kalogeropoulos et al., 2019). Students are allowed to ask
questions about other curriculum subjects and their numeracy inclusions. For example,
science specific numeracy can be promoted, as well as other KLAs such as HSIE. Parents are
welcome to sit in with their children while the workshop is happening and ask any questions
they have. The teachers will hold a meeting after each workshop with the individuals from
the workshop, discussing what has been taught so far. This meeting will also include what
needs to be revised and how the workshop can be made more effective to address the students
needs and any cross-curriculum links that need to be addressed. Students will bring home a
form home to their parents explaining the program and if the parent would like to engage.
This program will not be a recurring program it will engage with a lot of content. This
workshop will occur in Term 2 in weeks 2, 4 and 6.

Making mathematics accessible and understandable to parents

Goos and Jolly (2004) explain that inviting parents or carers to point out which mathematical
topic they would like to discuss during a session called ‘Workshop for Parents’ that can be
organised by teachers after hours at the parents or carers discretion (Goos & Jolly, 2004).
The sessions will help parents feel more confident in asking for help so that the students can
learn from their parents’ example. These sessions do not need to be exclusive to maths; it is
also inclusive of other curriculum subjects. Students are allowed to discuss and bring in
homework for other subjects if they feel like they need help with it. The data the teachers
collect after each session will include, how many students came, if their parents are engaging
with the program, and also, how they can better assist the students with their questions about
maths and other curriculum subjects if need be. Meetings will engage staff from all KLAs.
Students will be sent home with letters explaining the context of ‘Numeracy for Parents’. The
sessions will then run in term 2 in weeks 3, 5 and 7.

This programme will display ways in which the parents of Colyton High School will integrate
parents into the school to create a numerate community for their children. The ways in which
parents will be integrated into the school community are determined by the four themes of
best practice of which I am using three to demonstrate how it can be done. Strategies range
from take-home mathematics initiatives like ‘Numeracy take-home bags’, an interactive
workshop called GRIN, and a fortnightly school program called ‘Numeracy for Parents’ that
parents are more than welcome to attend with their math queries.

Interventions for the Further Community:

It is often underestimated by both schools and teachers exactly how much students can learn
from factors and people outside of school and the numerous benefits to gain from engaging in
community learning (Rennie, 2006). Therefore, creating opportunities for students at Colyton
High to engage in numerate learning through local community engagement will surely aid in
improving maths results and appreciation. There are two elements that will be incorporated
into the project, first being a community guest speaker and second a numeracy fair held by
the year 7 students to display for local guests.

Research demonstrates that an effective method of learning is through community

engagement and the use of guest speakers is a common approach “of enriching students’
learning experience” (Zou et al., 2019 p.175). Therefore introducing a guest speaker within
the project proposal will aid in increasing the appreciation for mathematics for students at
Colyton High. Possible guests may be Australian mathematician Akshay Venkatesh who won
the Fields medal and was a child prodigy that started university at 12 years old (Mannix,
2018). Venkatesh’s story on how mathematics changed his life will surely be highly
influential for the students. Another possible guest speaker may be a teacher from a local
tertiary organisation, which for Colyton High could be Mount Druitt TAFE. Having a teacher
from tertiary education inform the students about the numeracy skills involved in their
discipline could help foster an appreciation for mathematical literacy in school.

The second element that will be incorporated into the project to assist in interventions with
the further community at Colyton High is a numeracy fair. The fair will be held week 8 of
term 2 and will involve inviting community members to view and appreciate the many
numeracy related projects made by the year 7 students throughout the term. Students will be
given class time every week across subjects to work on the projects as teachers observe and
aid them when necessary. Students will be given a list of possible projects to choose from to
give them the opportunity to create something they will like and enjoy. An example of a
project will be a theme park project, where students use area and perimeter skills to design
and create a theme park layout which can be displayed at the fair. A small paragraph to
describe the skills used to create the project can be displayed on the side of the project for the
community and their parents to see the work they put into creating their project. Research
demonstrates that student learning achievement is significantly influenced by parent
involvement and engagement (Bond, 2019), therefore knowing that they have to display their
work to the community at the end will raise students motivation considerably. It will be a fun
and creative method that will allow students to become engaged learners by using not only
mathematics but also abilities across KLAs.

The further community is a significant factor in raising the building an overall numerate
community at Colyton High and these elements of the project will surely aid in improving
year 7 students results and appreciation in maths.

(c) How you intend to measure improvement? Measure outcomes

When experimenting with different learning environments, measuring improvements may

differ from the normal assessment styles. In order to measure students' appreciation for
maths, conducting a survey or questionnaire on student levels of engagement was believed to
allow an insight into the students experiences (Wiggins et al., 2017). Surveys conducted
before, during and after the project will allow us as educators to comprehend the thoughts of
the students while also giving us the opportunity to adjust the project to compliment their
needs. The same approach is intended for the wider school community, to assess the success
of parent and wider community interventions. Measuring whether student achievement has
improved through the project will involve the analysis of student work which will serve as
artefacts for the analysis of the project. Teacher interventions can utilise the same formal
discussions that are used to analyse teaching and learning to create school-based professional
development through critical discussion (Geiger et al., 2015). This internal focus is also to
help promote a community sense of leadership amongst the staff and encourage all teachers
to contribute to reviewing interventions (Rooney, 2018).
 (d) Outline the timeline for the project?

The project will be implemented over 1 semester.

Table 1: Gantt Chart for Project

Task
Term 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Term 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2
Week
Week 1
1

Notification of
programme to
homes and
surveys.

Peer mentoring

Peer mentoring
survey

Numeracy
take-home bags

Numeracy
take-home
survey

Seminar for
staff

Guest speaker
Collecting
work samples
for staff
meetings

Observing
lessons

Staff meetings
to analyse
teaching and
learning

Mid project
review

Progress letter
to homes

GRIN

Numeracy for
parents

Workshop
surveys

Working on
numeracy fair

Community
numeracy fair
Final project
review

(e) How does this lead to a cycle of continuous improvement?

A cyclical model will be adapted to ensure continuous improvement (ITIL Continual Service
Improvement (CSI) - CIO Wiki, n.d.) and is shown in figure 4. The vision of building a
numerate community is the first step and lays the foundations for the project. The next three
steps involved analysing the school’s needs and strengths, deciding the interventions and data
to collect. This evidence-based approach drives the continual improvement of the school. For
instance, student feedback allows for educators to receive information about immediate
school community interventions that can allow for modifications to be made (Shah, 2013).
The model can then be used again to begin another data collection cycle with the modified
intervention to support further adjustments to teaching and learning. Similar benefits are
gained through analysis of student learning (Fullan, 2007), once again emphasising
continuous improvement through reflexive use of data.

Nurturing the whole school community at Colyton also contributes to continuous

improvement. Schools are living ecosystems that strive when connections to the broader
community are recognised (Elgart, 2017). By emphasising the experiences of all school
community members, data collection becomes more powerful and acts as a further
connection to families and guests to the school, involving them in the cycle of improvement.
Distributed assessment of teaching and learning amongst staff also promotes reflexive
practice, where planning, professional community and student learning are synergised
(Fullan, 2007). Finally, by focusing on year 7 for teaching and learning, Colyton High School
builds gradual improvement over time by making projects manageable and enabling data
collected here to inform change for the year group’s future and the development of all other
students in the school (Elgart, 2017). It is hoped that reviewing evidence throughout the
project and distributing responsibility for the project interventions amongst staff transforms
staff culture to be critical practitioners that regularly engage the community.
Figure 4: Model for continuous improvement (ITIL Continual Service Improvement (CSI) -
CIO Wiki, n.d.)
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