Enhancing the relevance of new learning

Examples of teacher actions that enhance the relevance of new learning:

• exploring generalisations made by students
• providing appropriate levels of challenge
• encouraging students to explain their thinking
• supporting students to connect concepts and applications
• structuring mathematical discussion and argument (BES, p. 74)
• using debate rather than assertion to resolve intellectual conflict (BES, p. 74)
• using 'I can do/I understand…' sheets
• providing real-life problems in which the context is relevant to the student
• allowing students to pose and answer their own problems and write stories for mathematical models.

Specific activities

• Learning how to relate population distributions to the context.
• Students relating line graphs to contexts, for example:
  • Activity: Cell phone pricing plans
  • Activity: Forensic formulas
• Activity: Chocolate tasting - simulations and experiments
• Activity: Coffee costs
• Activity: Skid marks
• Activity: Linking integration and differentiation
• Activity: Legal driving age
• Activity: Fooling the teacher
• Activity: Lego exercise 

Further information

• YouTube: Everything is numbers, math is everywhere - Clip taken from the show Numb3rs that gives a quick explanation of the nature significance of math. Math is the real world, its everywhere. Example: The Fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio.
• Anthony, G., & Walshaw, M. (2009). Building on students’ thinking.  Effective pedagogy in mathematics (PDF 320 KB) (pp. 11-12). Belley: Gonnet Imprimeur.
• Anthony, G., & Walshaw, M. (2009). Mathematical language (pp. 21-22). Effective pedagogy in mathematics. Belley: Gonnet Imprimeur.
• Anthony, G., & Walshaw, M. (2007). Effective pedagogy in pāngarau/mathematics: Best evidence synthesis iteration (BES) Wellington: Ministry of Education.

Last updated September 5, 2018

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