CASE STUDY

The Ardee School, India

Implementing Thinking and Working

Mathematically in your classroom

The Ardee School, New Friends Colony, New Delhi started offering Cambridge
programmes and qualifications in 2017. The school provides programmes from
Cambridge Primary to Cambridge Advanced. In 2020, Cambridge Assessment
International Education revised the English, maths and science curricula for Cambridge
Primary and Lower Secondary. In this article, the school describes a key feature of the
new maths curriculum and how it has revolutionised the way children learn.

Why The Ardee School adopted Thinking Classroom examples

and Working Mathematically in their primary
classrooms
Ms Pooja Bhatia, Head of Primary School, Cambridge
Primary, recalls: ‘I remember learning maths as a child only
by memorising processes and formulas. There was no talking,
thinking and discussion in classroom sessions. The typical
motto for learning maths used to be – ‘Practice makes
perfect’. But recently, Cambridge International introduced an
exciting new feature in Cambridge Primary Mathematics –
“Thinking and Working Mathematically” (TWM) and it has
certainly brought a revolution in the process of learning.’
While Thinking and Working Mathematically, Cambridge
learners are encouraged to discuss with their peers and
mentors, challenge ideas and provide evidence that validates
conjectures and solutions. Purposeful discussion can clarify,
refine, explain, convince, justify and improve thinking
and working.
Thinking and Working Mathematically (TWM) is made up of
eight characteristics: Specialising, Generalising, Conjecturing,
Convincing, Characterising, Classifying, Critiquing
and Improving.
The Ardee School has shared some examples of how
TWM has been implemented in the mathematics classroom
of their Cambridge Primary section. All the examples below
were used in their virtual lessons to help develop
the TWM characteristics.
1. Specialising and Generalising
Specialising: choosing an example and checking to see if it
satisfies or does not satisfy specific mathematical criteria.
Generalising: recognising an underlying pattern by
identifying many examples that satisfy the same
mathematical criteria.
The topic under discussion was ‘General Statements about
Numbers’ which was introduced in Year 5. The students
recorded it in their journals in the following ways.
1. The students were expected to try various
combinations of numbers using mathematical
operations, for example 2 + 3 = 5.
2. The students were independently curating examples
and thus concluding their observations with
statements such as an Even Number + Odd Number =
Odd Number.
3. By working on such problems, the students were able
to specialise and generalise by choosing an example
that satisfies the mathematical equation.
Implementing Thinking and Working Mathematically in your classroom continued

To make students understand the concept of generalising, 3. Conjecturing

they were asked to imagine themselves as athletes and run
the track, assuming each number to be a hurdle. They were
expected to think about and decide on the underlying rule to
round the numbers to the nearest 1000.
Conjecturing: forming mathematical questions or ideas.
The school assigned a ‘Math Drill’ to students each week,
and this bolstered their arithmetic abilities. Mentioned below
are a few examples of how this was initiated in the class:
1. ‘I’m Eight’ was one such activity assigned to the
students in Year 4, which involved them forming
various equations that would equate to 8.

2. Characterising and Classifying

Characterising: identifying and describing the
mathematical properties of an object.
2. Some students formed simple equations like 10 – 2 = 8
Classifying: organising objects into groups according to
or 200 – 192 = 8, while some chose to challenge
their mathematical properties.
themselves and formed equations using a combination
Through this activity, the students were introduced to the of mathematical operations and parentheses such as
topic ‘Length’ in Year 5. (4 x 5) – (2 x 6) = 8.
1. The teacher explained the units visible on a standard 3. On the ‘Math Drill’ sheet a student conjectured that
ruler and the students then used the ruler as a the possibilities are endless.
measuring scale to read and measure objects.
2. A scavenger hunt, a student-favoured activity, was
conducted, where they searched for objects of a
given length.
This helped students to grasp ways to characterise and
classify, as well as identify and organise, the objects ranging
from 1 mm to 1 m.
Implementing Thinking and Working Mathematically in your classroom continued
4. Convincing
Convincing: presenting evidence to justify or challenge a
mathematical idea or solution.
1. For this characteristic, the school introduced a game
called ‘Tug Harder’ while concluding the topic ‘Positive
and Negative Numbers’ in Year 3. This game required a
number line, two dice and a counter. Player 1 represented
‘Positive’, and Player 2 represented ‘Negative’ on the
number line, where +13 and –13 represents the finish line
for the respective player. Players took turns to throw the
two dice and add the scores.
2. In the second part of this game, students moved the
counter in the assigned direction according to the
score. Whoever reached their respective finish line
earlier, won.
In this game, the students explained to their partners how
many times they needed to throw the dice to win the game.
For example, if a student was on +11, the student knew that
on the next throw they would win the game because the
minimum number on each dice is 1. So, +11 + 1 + 1 = 13.
In another example the student had to convince their partner
that the minimum number of throws to win is two. To do this
they had to convince their partner by explaining that the double
of 6 is 12, so the second throw can be any number to win.
How have the teachers and students benefited?
The introduction of the Thinking and Working
Mathematically characteristics has brought a deeper
understanding of mathematical concepts.
The Thinking and Working Mathematically characteristics
have helped the facilitators to:
• challenge the logic and reasoning of their students
• build connections with various mathematical facts.
The teachers have also observed that the Thinking and
Working Mathematically characteristics have had a positive
impact on learning.
Learn more! Go to: https://blog.cambridgeinternational.org/thinking-and-working-mathematically
5. Characterising and Critiquing
Characterising: identifying and describing the
mathematical properties of an object.
Critiquing: comparing and evaluating mathematical ideas,
representations or solutions to identify advantages and
disadvantages.
To explain this characteristic for TWM, students compared
the given numbers and identified the greater number, by
evaluating the digits at different place values. This helped
them to practise the techniques of characterising
and critiquing.
The teacher also adapted some questions from a blog on
‘Thinking and Working Mathematically’ by Cambridge
International, which played a critical and important role in
making students understand mathematical learning and the
characteristics of TWM.
Here are a few of the questions:
• Can you convince me?
• What is the same? What is different?
• How can you justify that?
• Can you give me another example?
• Can you find a pattern?
• The characteristics have encouraged learners to
develop higher order thinking skills and be collaborative.
• Since Thinking and Working Mathematically is a
process, the facilitators have observed that the
application of the new characteristics has led
to an increase in student engagement
and inquisitiveness.
• The students have been steadily improving by
performing calculations differently for a given
mathematical problem.