Targeted Learning: A Successful Approach
Linda Cheeseman & Bina Kachwalla & Marilyn HolmesIn 2007 “Targeted Learning Groups were set up in Otago and Southland, New Zealand to support students with their development of knowledge about numbers and to help students become numerate flexible thinkers (Holmes & Tait-McCutcheon, 2009). Since then many schools in New Zealand have trialled the intervention and adapted, where appropriate, to suit the audience in their areas. The purpose of this round table is to outline how the mathematical intervention has been implemented in some of the low socio-economic schools in Auckland, New Zealand. The discussion will focus on the impact of this intervention on student mathematical knowledge and problem solving skills. Data collated from sample schools have indicated that if there is a delay in strategy learning, it is often due to a deficit in one or all of the four knowledge domains: numeral identification, number sequence, place value, and basic facts. In order to bridge the knowledge deficit this intervention provides teachers, parents and teacher aides with a structured and sequential framework of knowledge teaching. The repetition of any learning enables students to master and retain new knowledge (Nuthall 2002) and the consistent nature of the intervention knowledge lessons provide a foundation for students to develop confidence to problem solve. This round table forum will afford an opportunity for international colleagues to share their experiences of mathematical interventions that have effectively raised student achievement. The discussion will be open to support, critique and/or add to the existing intervention and to seek further research ideas.