Oracy in Teaching Maths and Science - Essay Example

How oracy can be used to develop primary school pupils' thinking and interthinking skills in investigative and problem solving activities in Maths and Science Introduction Developing oracy or talking across the curriculum is about "enabling the children to use spoken language in a variety of contexts within the classroom environment" (Lalljee 1998, p.1). In addition to extending the children's vocabulary, this helps the children comprehend the different words that are associated with different subjects in different contexts. Talking also helps the children to think aloud and to think logically, and to discuss, to reason and to present the information and their thoughts effectively and with clarity. Talking involves two essential elements - the 'process' of using the spoken language and the 'content' of the language used. The teachers use different strategies to provide opportunities to allow different types of discussions. Spoken language skills need to be developed in all subject areas, as different curriculum areas require different speaking and listening skills. There are different aspects that need to be observed relating to the different processes involved in talking, thinking and interthinking. For example, in assessing a child's ability to analyse a problem, his or her skills at speculating, questioning and hypothesising have to be observed. In assessing a child's ability to communicate, his or her skills at describing, explaining and clarifying have to be observed. This requires that the teacher observe a set of pupils of just two or three per session so that an appropriate observation of skills and a proper planning of talk experiences can be made. It is useful to involve pupils in the planning process so that they can participate in discussions as to what skills are needed in different areas such as math problem-solving, science experiments, etc., and the different kinds of talk, the outcomes and the resources available. Children should be made to work in different groups, playing diverse roles, so that stereotyping can be avoided and their different skills can be observed. Participation in diverse groups helps the children understand the functioning of group dynamics and the benefits of team work. Lalljee cites the example of 6-year-old children working in pairs for producing a free form class poem where the discussions of their ideas inspired them enough to produce an illustrated booklet which was read with enthusiasm by them (Lalljee 1998, p.6). Encouraging students to make suggestions on problems and ideas allow them speaking and listening space within the curriculum. Development of problem-solving skills According to the National Curriculum, teachers are expected to provide pupils opportunities to develop seven common requirements - Curriculum Cymreig, Communication Skills, Mathematical Skills, Information Technology Skills, Problem-solving Skills, Creative Skills, Personal and Social Education - through their study of the National Curriculum subjects (Common requirements n.d.). The Education Act of 2002 stipulates that a balanced and broadly-based curriculum should prepare pupils for the "opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life" (Skills framework 2007, p.2). Future Skills Wales 2003 Generic Skills Survey reports that of skills gaps reported by employers, lack of IT skills is the most common problem "followed by communication skillsshowing initiative, problem solving and ability to learn" (cited in Skills framework 2007, p.2). The skills framework developed for oracy moves on a continuum of different levels and stages for developing and presenting information and ideas. The problem-solving skills in oracy are developed through several key stages. For developing oracy, the first key stage involves using talk to develop thinking by exploring, developing and clarifying ideas, predicting outcomes and discussing possibilities. The second stage involves talking for a range of purposes, including planning, predicting and investigating. The third stage involves talking for a range of purposes including argument, debate, prediction and persuasion. The fourth stage involves talking for a range of purposes including explanation, description, narration, exploration, hypothesis, analysis, discussion, argument and persuasion (Common requirements n.d.). Moving along the continuum, the pupils learn to listen attentively and respond to a wide range of communication. They learn to identify key points and to question and comment. They learn to express ideas confidently and communicate with clarity. They develop the skill to hold the attention of the audience, using appropriate tone and gesture, and focussing on the purpose of the talk. They become aware of the social conventions of conversation, using formal and informal language appropriately, and develop the facility to use different sentence structures, using varied and appropriate terminology with precision (Developing oracy 2008). Brainstorming Brainstorming is a method of encouraging the children to pool in their suggestions on a given subject, all of which are written down on the blackboard or flipchart as the case may be. After ideas have been exhausted, the suggestions are examined, the impractical ones eliminated and the practical ones retained. These retained ideas are grouped into different areas of investigation. This method encourages thinking on the part of the students, thorough examination of concepts, birth of new ideas, and revision of old ones to making them more possible. Case studies have shown that sifting, sorting and clarifying of ideas help children speak with authority and participate confidently in analytical and evaluative discussions. Brainstorming encourages children to predict outcomes and discuss possibilities (Lalljee 1998, p.13). Snowballing Snowballing refers to making children work in pairs to discuss about a topic or problem, who after a few minutes of discussion are grouped with another pair where they share each other's thoughts and ideas on the topic discussed and listed. These groups of four may be made groups of eight and the sharing and listing of ideas continued. Finally, the group shares its thoughts with the rest of the class. This method helps to set the ball rolling and it helps the children learn to question, speculate and theorize, and to share knowledge. Rainbow groups Children are divided into several groups to carry out tasks. Each child in a group is given a colour or a number. After the group completes the task, the children of same number or colour form new groups and they compare and review what they have done (Johnson 1993, p.36). Envoying Another method of group thinking is envoying where children work in pairs or groups of fours, sixes or eights on specific aspects of a general task. After discussion, they note all their points, questions and conclusions relating to the topic. Then the children are asked to nominate a representative who goes to other groups to share thoughts with them. The representative then returns to his or her group and shares the others' comments, after which the group makes necessary revisions and proceeds to implement the task (Lalljee 1998, p.10). Envoying encourages children to gain more insight into subjects through discussions, questioning, exchanging ideas, group thinking, clarifying, revisions, etc. Jigsaw Jigsaw is another method that facilitates group thinking and expression of thoughts and ideas that is used usually in areas of curriculum such as science, maths and geography. This method involves dividing the class into equal-sized groups called home groups which are further divided into subgroups. Each home group is given a task and the group discusses the several aspects of the task. The different subgroups look into these tasks, with each subgroup investigating into a particular aspect of the task, gathering information and bringing it back to the home group. Each home group then discusses and presents the completed task to the class, inviting comments from the other members of the class (Lalljee 1998, p.18). Play, an agent of learning Young children are natural problem-solvers who from a young age try to question and investigate to make sense of the environment they are in and its functions, developing several important skills in the process. Play and language are the main agents of learning in this learning process (Laar 1998, p.21). Well-planned and pleasurable play helps children think, enhances their understanding and improves their language competence while exploring and investigating their surroundings and experimenting and testing their ideas and conclusions (Laar 1998, p.21). According to Laar, play is where imagination and work meet, and it is adults who confuse the children's play with leisure and try to draw a line between play and work. For children play, is a serious activity that requires high levels of intellectual effort and concentration, and it is as challenging and as risky as the work and study of adults. To illustrate this, Laar describes a case study, where a group of children, inspired by the workmen who were plastering on the school premises, undertook 'plastering' of an exterior wall with improvised tools, sand and water, and were frustrated that their sand and water did not stick to the wall. At the teacher's prompting, they talked to the workmen who enlightened on how to create the mixture and allowed them to 'plaster' a large piece of hardboard (Laar 1998, p.22). Such play activities are educative for the children in that they learn to identify their objectives, make a plan, prioritise activities, identify materials needed or their substitutes. They learn to organize, cooperate, negotiate, persuade, bargain, allocate and motivate. In the process, they learn several interpersonal and leadership skills. Language plays an integral role in all these processes of learning. Oral language plays a significant role in questioning, discussing, analysing, reflecting, understanding and concluding. Hence, language and intellectual growth are interdependent and complementary to each other. Several examples of this can be seen in normal day-to-day lives where, for example, a small girl mimics her mother going to office or working in the kitchen, or a small boy mimics his father doing numerous odd jobs around the house, all the while talking to himself through the different stages of his work and expressing a myriad of emotions that he experiences through the progression of the work. Other classroom strategies Pupils can be encouraged to use talk diaries wherein they can make notes on what they have learnt or inferred (Des Fountian 1993, p.61). Talk diaries can also be used to reflect on their own work or others' presentations. Aims for future discussions can also be written in talk diaries. Discussion logs can also be maintained by the pupils to note down the progression of a discussion. The various ideas, concepts and thoughts that have originated in the discussion may be jotted down for future reference. Pupil interviews may also be conducted where pupils interview each other to know what others learnt, for clarifications on ideas and thoughts, etc. Speaking and listening for thinking Children learn to think for themselves by first listening to others' perspectives. By listening to others they understand that "things can be seen in different ways from different perspectives" (Wegerif, cited in Dawes, L. & Breeze, L. 2008, p.14). Listening itself is a kind of speaking as it involves looking at the perspective of others and generating answering words in the mind of the listener. Thinking skills include creativity, reasoning, evaluating, reflecting and self-monitoring which are prompted by speaking and listening. Pupils can be taught to use effective dialogue by enhancing their quality of speaking and listening. To improve thinking skills, children can be asked to describe things that they see or to explain what they think about particular ideas or things, by using descriptive words and adjectives and by encouraging reflection and discussion. Talking and thinking together to complete a story or doing a maths problem together is another method of developing thinking skills in students. Philosophy for children Philosophy for Children or P4C is an action research approach that promotes enquiry and dialogue in a community and as a community (Developing oracy n.d., p.3). This helps promote speaking and listening, critical thinking and social skills within a safe, yet challenging, social setting. The Clackmannanshire Research Project has proved P4C to have a positive stimulus for class dialogue. According to the results of the Project, the group of children gained an improvement in their cognitive abilities which was equivalent to 6.5 standard points on average after 16 months of weekly enquiry (Developing oracy n.d., p.4). There was increased participation of children in classroom discussions. The support of the pupils doubled with reasons doubled, and the teachers doubled their use of open-ended questions. The enhanced cognitive abilities of the children sustained two years into secondary school after leaving primary school. Significant improvement was seen in communication, confidence, concentration, participation and social behaviour (Developing oracy n.d., p.4). There are several projects that aim at enhancing thinking skills in mathematics. Some of them are Let's think through maths, Cognitive Acceleration through Maths Education or CAME and CASE for science. Oracy for mathematics projects help bring about longer interactions and increased participation of pupils in classroom discussions. There are increased number of authentic questions asked by the teachers and pupils. There is improvement in the acquisition of mathematical and scientific concepts and mathematical and scientific attainment levels are higher. English as an additional language In developing oracy in pupils using English as an additional language, pupils should be given communicative tasks that promote talk. Examples of such tasks include language games like Chinese whispers, drama and problem-solving activities such as making something together or working on a maths problem (Information for schools n.d., p.2). Pupils should be given time to talk about the task after completion of the task. One method of doing this is Circle sharing where pupils sit in a circle and share with each other what they have done and learnt. Another method is self-evaluation, where pupils reflect on their own learning (Information for schools n.d., p.2). Pupils should be encouraged to participate in practical tasks of problem-solving like board games, role play, interviews, discussions and debates. Collaboration tasks like the making of a story by the group help pupils extend their vocabulary skills. Language repetition through pupils teaching each other or through retelling stories can help practise and consolidate language. Creating a supportive environment can help language development. This can be done by using audio tapes, organising listening centres, literacy corners and play areas, by keeping books within easy reach of pupils, etc. Children coming from diverse cultural backgrounds can be encouraged to speak about their languages, the differences in their usage and structure, etc. Pupils should be assessed for their ability to use English and their first language, and their ability to shift from language to language. Teacher's use of language In helping pupils develop oracy, especially bilingual pupils, it is of utmost importance that the teacher uses language appropriately and correctly. The teacher's language should be systematic and consistent, using repetition, checking for understanding and modifying language when necessary (Information for schools n.d., p.3). The teacher should use strategies for confirming understanding, asking for clarification. The pupils should be asked to compare English with their own language and complimented on using good language. The teachers should offer consistent and continued support, as attaining proficiency in a language can take up to several years. Equal attention should be given to the development of both English and the home language. Four-dimensional perspective The term oracy in the present context can be considered as having four dimensions to it. The first dimension is 'learning' which refers to the "connection between spoken language and understanding" (Howe 1993, p.46). Talking about an idea helps clarify the idea, generate new ideas and learn new concepts. The second dimension is 'resources' which refers to the ability to use appropriate terminology, use proper vocabulary to convey different meanings, use non-verbal signs like gestures, articulations and eye contact, organise ideas and prioritise thoughts. The third dimension is 'reciprocity' which refers to the 'social or interpersonal' aspect of oracy. This involves working with others, co-operating with others and being a good listener and talker. The fourth dimension is 'reflexivity' which refers to using the spoken language to be reflective about oneself and others in the roles of talkers and listeners. All these dimensions can be expressed in one word - versatility, which should be the ultimate aim of developing oracy (Howe 1993, p.48). The process of assessment How well pupils talk on a subject or a situation depends on various factors. These include the pupils' understanding of the task at hand and how they should respond, the nature of the audience, their interest in the task, their commitment to the task, their knowledge and understanding of the subject, their fluency in the language, their personality, their gender, the general atmosphere prevailing in the classroom, etc. This renders it difficult for the teachers to make a fair assessment of the students. To overcome this difficulty, the teachers use an assessment model that collects information on their performance over a range of tasks and focuses on the best. This process of assessment involves "planning; managing the learning environment; observation; recording; summarising; evaluating; making judgements; and reporting" (National Oracy Project 1993, p.65). Conclusion Spoken language skills need to be developed in all subject areas, as different curriculum areas require different speaking and listening skills. The skills framework developed for oracy moves on a continuum of different levels and stages for developing and presenting information and ideas. Brainstorming, snowballing, rainbow groups, envoying and jigsaws are different methods of providing opportunities for pupils to talk, make suggestions and exchange ideas. Play is where imagination and work meet, and play helps children think, enhances their understanding and improves their language competence while exploring, investigating, experimenting and testing. Let's think through maths, Cognitive Acceleration through Maths Education or CAME and CASE for science are projects that enhance thinking skills in maths and science. However, to ensure sustained effects for all these interventions, they need more prolonged support from the school, even after the pupils leave the primary school. A system for measuring the attainments of the pupils has to be developed which can help monitor their progress. A system has to be developed for periodical review and reflection of the teachers' practices so as to facilitate appropriate revisions and improvements. References Common Requirements across the National Curriculum: Problem-Solving Skills, viewed 27 February 2009, http://old.accac.org.uk/uploads/documents/1367.doc Dawes, L. & Breeze, L. 2008, 'Class talk skills', The essential speaking and listening: Talk for learning at key stage 2, Routledge, pp.10-31, viewed 27 February 2009, http://books.google.co.in/booksid=JjabFBPvkjcC&pg=PA110&lpg=PA110&dq=Oracy+thinking+interthinking+skills&source=bl&ots=PEhC1SjQtI&sig=CVC9PO3dWDc6fBS2A4osIGupJnU&hl=en&ei=cSilSby_GcPVkAWOo83BBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=7&ct=result#PPA14,M1 Des Fountain, J. 1993, 'Planning for learning through talk', in S. Brindley (ed), Teaching English, Routledge, pp.55-63, viewed 28 February 2009, http://books.google.co.in/booksid=JsNAEJWkAzQC&pg=PA64&lpg=PA64&dq=oracy+pupils+criticism&source=bl&ots=fHiCXmoFfK&sig=MVmMqIS6MoImNWgFA6-hyNwNuF8&hl=en&ei=PmWoSZGzJo-1kAWQ57zgDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result#PPA61,M1 Developing Oracy: Curriculum 2008, viewed 27 February 2009, http://www.cynnal.co.uk/English2008/Ffolderi/Oracy %5BSandL%5D/KS2 Oracy frame.doc Developing Oracy, Dialogue and Mathematical Thinking through a 'philosophy for children' approach: Oracy for Mathematics, viewed 27 February 2009, www.inter-disciplinary.net/ati/education/cp/ce4/cunningham%20paper.pdf Howe, A. 1993, 'Perspectives on oracy', in S. Brindley (ed), Teaching English, Routledge, pp.43-54, viewed 28 February 2009, http://books.google.co.in/booksid=JsNAEJWkAzQC&pg=PA64&lpg=PA64&dq=oracy+pupils+criticism&source=bl&ots=fHiCXmoFfK&sig=MVmMqIS6MoImNWgFA6-hyNwNuF8&hl=en&ei=PmWoSZGzJo-1kAWQ57zgDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result#PPA46,M1 Information for schools: Bilingual pupils: Advanced learners n.d., viewed 28 February 2009, http://www.stockport.gov.uk/content/educationservices/schools/pupilsupport/ethnicdiversityservice/emas/info4schools/advancedlearners Johnson, J. 1993, 'The National Oracy Project', in S. Brindley (ed), Teaching English, Routledge, pp.33-42, viewed 28 February 2009, http://books.google.co.in/booksid=JsNAEJWkAzQC&pg=PA64&lpg=PA64&dq=oracy+pupils+criticism&source=bl&ots=fHiCXmoFfK&sig=MVmMqIS6MoImNWgFA6-hyNwNuF8&hl=en&ei=PmWoSZGzJo-1kAWQ57zgDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result#PPA36,M1 Laar, B. 1998, 'Play and inventive activity', in J. Holderness & B. Lalljee (eds), An introduction to oracy: Frameworks for talk, Continuum International Publishing Group, pp.19-42, viewed 27 February 2009, http://books.google.co.in/booksid=m_BJvYF0eNsC&pg=PA4&lpg=PA4&dq=oracy+pupils+problem+solving&source=bl&ots=saQSUADUFk&sig=g_uLzwcWAjPuSpN6iKr8VcrwbFY&hl=en&ei=rS-lSfe0FpDG6gPEnunNAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result#PPA21,M1 Lalljee, B. 1998, 'Using talk across the curriculum', in J. Holderness & B. Lalljee (eds), An introduction to oracy: Frameworks for talk, Continuum International Publishing Group, pp.1-18, viewed 26 February 2009, http://books.google.co.in/booksid=m_BJvYF0eNsC&pg=PA4&lpg=PA4&dq=oracy+pupils+problem+solving&source=bl&ots=saQSUADUFk&sig=g_uLzwcWAjPuSpN6iKr8VcrwbFY&hl=en&ei=rS-lSfe0FpDG6gPEnunNAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result#PPA1,M1 National Oracy Project 1993, 'Talking and assessment in secondary English', in S. Brindley (ed), Teaching English, Routledge, pp.64-71, viewed 28 February 2009, http://books.google.co.in/booksid=JsNAEJWkAzQC&pg=PA64&lpg=PA64&dq=oracy+pupils+criticism&source=bl&ots=fHiCXmoFfK&sig=MVmMqIS6MoImNWgFA6-hyNwNuF8&hl=en&ei=PmWoSZGzJo-1kAWQ57zgDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result#PPA65,M1 Skills Framework 2007, viewed 28 February 2009, http://wales.gov.uk/docrepos/40382/4038232/403829/Consultations/870830/1096456/skills-cons-elang=en Read More