Make it Count: An Evidence Base to support Numeracy, Mathematics and Indigenous Learners
Will Morony & Caty MorrisMake it count: Numeracy, mathematics and Indigenous learners is a national, four year project that is developing whole school, evidence based, sustainable practices to enhance Indigenous students’ learning. Community engagement is key to the project’s success and various communities of practice are being built to support the work of the project. Eight clusters of schools across Australia are working together to build their evidence base so teachers will know whether they are doing things better or not; so they have certainty around what they believe, and clarity about why things have worked (or not). Contributing to this is the emerging role of the clusters · Critical Friends’ · mathematics and/or Indigenous education academics · who are working in collaboration with the schools in their particular focus. Adding to the evidence base is the overall project evaluation which includes both quantitative and qualitative longitudinal data about change. The project staff is also identifying direct and indirect evidence. Our challenge is to provide an evidence base of “stuff” that works. How do we marshall the different layers of this “stuff” into the evidence base and, at the same time, evolve the various roles of those contributing? Do we need something more? The aim of this round table presentation is to open up discussions about participants’ experiences and knowledge that can maximise the evidence base from a layered, school-based project like this and to inform the work of the project with new thinking, learning and knowledge.