Course summary: understanding number
Well done! You have reached the end of the course all about numbers. Throughout the course we explored methods to help develop a deeper understanding of this topic.
We hope you have picked up some clear, classroom-based teaching approaches and explanations that will help your students to get to grips with, and develop links between, the different aspects of number.
We’ve looked at different types of number, found patterns in times tables, discovered divisibility rules and delved into factors, multiples and prime numbers. We have worked with a range of different numbers, including negatives, surds and pi. We also explained the order in which we perform operations and how these skills are applied across the wider mathematics curriculum.
Mathematical fluency
One of the aims of the English national curriculum is that students become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics. This statement may be interpreted as requiring students to practise techniques by completing long exercises of questions until fluency is achieved. The aim of the steps on perfect numbers and happy numbers is to highlight that there is an alternative to just doing exercise in order to gain fluency.
Further resources
Dr Colin Foster from Loughborough University is leading the Mathematical Etudes Project which aims to find creative, imaginative and thought-provoking ways to help learners of mathematics develop their fluency in important mathematical procedures.
Q&A with the National STEM Learning Centre
Twice a year we will run an online Q&A with the Maths Subject Specialists at the National STEM Learning Centre. We will take your questions and record our answers to a selection of the most common or unusual problems!
The video will be posted to the STEM Learning Community Group for this course. You can post your questions to the community group before the deadlines advertised on the group.
Further professional development
Watch the video below to learn about the STEM Learning Impact Journey: our approach to supporting your continuing professional development as a teacher, teaching assistant or technician.
This is an additional video, hosted on YouTube.
Find out more about subject-specific CPD led by the National STEM Learning Centre:
*CPD is made affordable through Project ENTHUSE and ENTHUSE Bursary which are available for many of our CPD activities, and can be used towards the cost of CPD fees, expenses and resources. ENTHUSE Bursary is available to individuals from all UK state-funded schools, including maintained schools, academies and free schools.
Free online learning and teaching resources
The National STEM Learning Centre’s website houses the largest open collection of resources for teachers of science, design and technology, engineering and mathematics in the UK.
Maths Subject Knowledge: Understanding Numbers
Maths Subject Knowledge: Understanding Numbers
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