School Aspect

Nowadays, both primary and secondary schools develop their school Mathematics curriculum with reference to the central Mathematics Education curriculum. It is a general practice that panel heads work in collaboration with other panelists to diagnose students’ strengths and weaknesses as well as their learning needs in mathematics to provide a basis for the planning of the school Mathematics curriculum. The following are some strategies to embrace learner diversity at the school level.

(a) Adopting school-level arrangements such as providing additional lessons to students in need and introducing ability grouping strategies like streaming, split class, withdrawal and cross-level subject setting

For more able or gifted students, teachers can group them for attending mathematics pull-out programme during or after regular school hours to allow structured learning.

(b) Adjusting the inclusion of Non-foundation Topics of the secondary Mathematics curriculum or the depth of treatment of topics in the primary Mathematics curriculum while selecting topics as the common core learning contents for all students

(c) Arranging the learning contents in a logical sequence for each year level

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taking into consideration the cognitive development, the mathematical abilities, learning styles and interests of students; the learning objectives of each learning unit; the inter-relation of learning units; and the inter-relation of mathematical learning at different year levels

For less able students, it is necessary to review the essential topics regularly.

The spiral approach assists students to refresh their knowledge. However, it should be noted that the teaching of too many topics in a specific year and fragmentation of learning (i.e. breaking learning down into unconnected bits of knowledge or skills) should be avoided. In addition, measures like organising bridging programmes can be introduced to ensure that students of different abilities can progress in the curriculum.

For more able or gifted students, teachers can employ curriculum enrichment, compacting and acceleration to address their learning needs. Curriculum compacting refers to the skipping of certain basic concepts or basic skills that students have mastered so that teachers could focus more on the harder part of the topics or introduce related enrichment topics. Teachers can also help students develop self-directed learning by selecting suitable basic contents for pre-lesson study. Nevertheless, teachers should secure students’ mastery of basic skills through appropriate assessments. Curriculum acceleration refers to learning and teaching at a pace faster than the one suggested in the central curriculum.

(d) Choosing appropriate textbooks, selecting proper learning and teaching resources and adapting or producing instructional materials

Schools may either use different textbooks for students from different ability groups of the same year level, or use the same textbook but centrally produce different instructional materials to support students in different classes.

Teachers can also provide learning and consolidation tasks to set scaffolding for students of different abilities in learning mathematics.

(e) Designing a wide variety of learning activities such as weekly questions posted on the mathematics bulletin boards, mathematics books reading schemes, poster design, and mathematics club

Students with different inclinations and abilities may participate in different activities that suit their needs or interest. Students could be encouraged to participate in activities outside of school, e.g. Mathematics Creative Problem Solving Competition for Primary Schools, Hong Kong Mathematics Olympiad

(HKMO), Mathematics Project Competition for Secondary Schools, Mathematics Book Report Competition for Secondary Schools, Hong Kong Statistical Project Competition for Secondary School Students and Hong Kong Statistics Creative-Writing Competition for Secondary School Students.

(f) Formulating the school assessment policy and methods of recording and reporting to provide feedback for learning and teaching.

Schools may empower teachers to use diversified modes of assessment to suit the needs of individual classes and allow certain percentages (say 5% to 10%) of students’ mathematics scores to teachers’ own discretion. Teachers may design their own test papers, project work, daily marks, etc. which account for the percentage of the mathematics scores set.

Schools may also consider using different question papers for classes of different mathematical abilities. Such practice can provide flexibility for teachers to assess students’ learning at their particular ability levels.

Information provided would reflect the performance of students through suitable assessment criteria and serve the purpose of assessment for learning.

(g) Caring for non-Chinese speaking (NCS) students

In general, NCS students have a lower Chinese language competence and English is usually adopted as the medium of instruction for Mathematics.

Some mathematics learning and teaching materials produced by the EDB have been translated into English and are available at the EDB website. Schools with NCS students have to note that besides language, there might also be differences between Chinese and NCS students in terms of their cultural backgrounds and learning experiences. For example, as NCS students might have a different counting method in their own culture, the learning content of the Mathematics curriculum might need to be rearranged to address the NCS students’ needs. Using more graphical illustrations in instructional materials may also help NCS students to grasp the learning content of the Mathematics curriculum.

(h) Providing gifted students with information on off-site support programmes A variety of enrichment programmes are offered by professional bodies, universities and non-governmental organisations including The Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education (HKAGE) to provide opportunities for more advanced learning to enhance the performance of gifted students with

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exceptional achievements or potential in specific aspects. The Gifted Education Section of Education Bureau and HKAGE also co-operate with or/and commission tertiary institutes (or educational organisations/bodies) to provide challenging off-site enrichment and extension learning opportunities for exceptionally gifted students nominated by schools.⁸ Schools could visit the related websites and find out details about programmes and activities suitable for their students who are gifted in mathematics.

(i) Adapting the school curriculum according to the needs of SEN students with due consideration given to their pace and style of learning

Curriculum adaptation is not equivalent to trimming but about tailoring the learning objectives, content, materials, teaching strategies and learning environment to suit the learning needs of students with SEN and particularly their learning pace and style. Schools are encouraged to help students with SEN identify learning objectives, achievement targets and expected level of performance in mathematics according to their prior knowledge, abilities and learning needs.