‘Boost confidence, shrink classes’ to lift maths scores

Two tutors have recommended smaller class sizes and confidence-building measures to improve students’ Mathematics performance, even as various organisations work to raise maths scores, particularly among boys in the classroom.

With fewer than half of candidates regionally passing Mathematics examinations despite improvements this year, the tutors said one of the biggest hurdles affecting performance is confidence.

Maths tutor Dominique Yorke told Barbados TODAY that confidence was the primary issue affecting some students.

She said: “For some children, once they see something that they didn’t know before, they start to think: ‘Well, I don’t know how to approach this,’ so maybe they will be reluctant to even attempt it. The second issue, again, is that they would have missed a section of their day at school and maybe miss a lesson. So therefore, they actually do not know what to do in relation to what they are expected to do on the paper. And then the time that a teacher can spend to teach one part of the syllabus is to me very short.”

Some students are afraid to ask questions or seek clarification, and can fall behind their peers, creating further challenges as they progress through the curriculum, Yorke said.

“That will cause an issue then with them not being able to catch up when they fall behind, because if they say they understand, the teacher moves on; they will be behind, and that’s going to cause an issue for the next step because with maths … it builds on, so you learn from step one. With step ten, you’re going to need step one to nine to be able to do step 10. So that’s the issue.”

Some students get as far as secondary school but struggle because they have not grasped foundational concepts in primary school, Yorke said.

She gave examples of fourth form students in the programme who are doing maths at a Class four level. She believes more emphasis should be placed on helping the students actually do the work rather than only getting help to pass the exam. 

Yorke believes students should be taught in such a way to correctly grasp the concepts so they are better prepared for the CXC.

Another maths tutor, Janiya Harper, shared Yorke’s view that a lack of confidence challenges students. She recommended destigmatising maths to improve student scores.

“I think a lot of children grow up hearing, ‘Math is hard, math is difficult, and that’s really not the case. Math is something that is done in everyday life, and I think once we… show them when we go to the shop and buy our favourite snacks, that is math. I think that would really help with the scores in math.”

Yorke also believes smaller class sizes would allow teachers to spend more time with each student and address difficulties they may have with understanding the work.

“I think what can be done to improve it is, one, making sure that there are smaller classes because the more children that they have in one class, the less amount of time a teacher can spend with one student. So, for me, that causes one of the issues with learning.”

Neurodivergent learning needs can also affect students’ learning performance, Yorke said.

“We have some children who would have been diagnosed with dyslexia. Also, I would have encountered some children who… were diagnosed with autism and ADHD, and all of those things would contribute to the way that they learn. So with children like that, you need to take it from the board and move it into an interactive session in order for them to grasp what is being taught.”

The tutors believe that if these techniques, accompanied by other measures, are used in schools along with extra lessons, students’ maths scores will continue to improve.

(LG)