by Anne Stothers
How can we help our Foundation students achieve higher grades at GCSE?
During my 30 years of teaching secondary maths this has been a question discussed at departmental meetings and schools I have worked at.
What practical steps can we take can we do to help all students achieve at Foundation GCSE maths level? How can we address the challenges that can often lead us to believe that GCSE Maths Foundation students ‘can’t retain information’, ‘can’t do problem solving’ and ‘can’t revise’?
In this post I will outline seven strategies for raising attainment. Each strategy is supported by evidence, including cognitive psychology that you may already be familiar with. And each is part of the teaching toolkit I use today, grounded in my 30 years in schools as a teacher, head of department, consultant, PiXL associate and SLE.
1. Check students are thinking
This may seem obvious, but how do we know our students are attentive and actively engaged in the learning? Most of us have been using mini white boards for some time in our classrooms. I wouldn’t be without my boards, my own set travels with me everywhere I go to work with students.
My mantra - check students are thinking by using mini white boards throughout every lesson.
The science:
Learning only happens when the brain is actively engaged and thinking is how we learn best. We have to make changes in our long-term memory to be able to recall information.
Repetition does not ensure learning. It can help but without schema to bond to, new information will be forgotten. Students doing similar questions after they have understood a skill is not a good use of their time and won’t help them learn the skill better or for longer.
2. Prior knowledge – check before each unit
We just can’t presume students know stuff. It’s time to focus on what students actually know (not what we think we have taught them!). Always check they know what they need to know before teaching new content. To help with this, the new Collins GCSE Maths Student Books have prior knowledge recall tests embedded before each new chapter.
The science:
According to Daniel Willingham “Memory is the residue of thought”.
We learn by connecting new information to our prior knowledge. The more deeply we process information in terms of its meaning, the more solidly it’s embedded in our memory. Spending time activating and checking prior knowledge is a highly effective way of helping students acquire new knowledge.
3. Checking understanding with low stakes quizzes and retrieval activities
Have hinge questions pre-prepared and threaded throughout the lesson, ideally using mini white boards so you can see all responses. Try to anticipate misconceptions your students might have so these can be addressed promptly.
The science:
Engaging in learning followed by retrieval is more beneficial than re-learning the topic.
In order to have information in our memories that we are able to retrieve we need to encode it, store it and then retrieve it.
4. Spaced practice and interleaving
You may have already seen the Forgetting Curve (or Ebbinghaus Curve of Forgetting). We understand that frequent recall of facts aids learning and memory. Ideally every lesson would begin with recall – and this could be mixed up (or interleaved) so that students must really think about their answers. It’s very individual to each class and I advocate that each teacher spends a short amount of time putting retrieval quizzes together for the start of lessons. The quizzes give students something to begin working on straight away and so are great to have ready when students enter the room.
The science:
The steepest drop in memory happens soon after learning. Building recall activities starting shortly after new content is learned can help retention. Longer and longer gaps can be left after some reinforcement is completed.
5. Use of ‘one markers’ and the first half of the paper
Fluency in basic skills is also vital for students to achieve their grade 4 or 5 at GCSE.
I use ‘one marker’ exam questions with all my Foundation students to start lessons in the lead up to the exams. Focusing on these more straightforward, AO1 questions helps to build basic skills and confidence.
Spend time on building expertise on the first half of the paper. For the 2023 Maths GCSE, both Pearson Edexcel and AQA Foundation students needed to achieve about 2/3 of the marks for a grade 4 and about 3/4 of the marks for a grade 5.
Securing the first half of the paper is essential if they are to achieve this. By doing this their basic skills will improve, and they will have more secure knowledge to then tackle the more challenging second half of the exam.
The science:
The brain reacts to expectation. Negative experiences influence your whole body and inhibit the release of neurotransmitters that reduce stress. By giving students positive experiences in maths, we can encourage better participation and motivation to further succeed.
6. Learning how to problem solve (AO3) - depth and application in every lesson
Foundation students can problem-solve. Yes, there are problem-solving skills we can teach, such as form and test hypotheses, and eliminating options. But in order to become confident problem-solvers in maths, students need to become ‘expert’ in those topics. Follow each lesson or unit with application questions. Use AO3 exam questions to build confidence with solving unfamiliar problems but, initially, stick to topics that have just been covered.
The science:
When you want your car fixed you don’t go to a problem solver! Expertise in any field helps with solving problems in that field. By ensuring necessary skills and knowledge are learned, students can then be led through how to apply that knowledge to solving unfamiliar problems.
7. Metacognition – learning to learn and how to revise
Guiding students towards autonomy will help them become more independent as learners and able to assess their own personal strengths and weaknesses. This can be taught explicitly and interwoven with the experience students have in their classrooms. By asking pertinent questions we can encourage students to critique their understanding and make them aware of potential challenges (and how to overcome them). We can also help students develop strategies enabling them to improve their maths knowledge and skills. One way of doing this is to give students time at the end of independent work to evaluate their work giving them a scaffold set of prompts. This could include what was difficult about the task, what different strategies they tried and what they might do differently next time. Discussing this with a partner can be an effective way of developing metacognitive skills.
The science:
Autonomous learners will achieve more – they understand the goals and objectives and are able to assess and plan what they need to do to improve.
These seven evidence-based strategies are very much a part of my toolkit when I’m working with GCSE Foundation maths students. If some are new to you and you are looking to raise student attainment, I encourage you to give them a try and integrate them into your practice.
Anne Stothers MBA is a secondary maths consultant with over 30 years’ teaching and leadership experience. She is an examiner for multiple exam boards and a conference speaker. She has authored books and created video content for several organisations and she specialises in CPD creation and delivery.