Level 5 Teaching Functional Skills Mathematics – Session 7

Problem Solving

Welcome

This session will help participants explore a critical area for learners undertaking Functional Skills Mathematics i.e. how to understand maths problems and generate solutions for them. The content will help to make sense of situations, how they are representing themselves, processing and using the mathematics for solutions and interpreting and communicating the results of the analysis. Participants will gain a plethora of ideas on how to help learners with their problem solving skills and handle one of the most challenging aspects of their exams.

Session outcomes

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

  • Identify and track the role of problem solving within the Functional Maths Subject Content
  • Analyse difficulties experienced by learners and evaluate strategies to develop problem solving skills
  • Evaluate approaches to scaffold and support problem solving in Functional Maths.

Session 7 PowerPoint slides

Here are the presentation slides for this session.

Session Padlet

Here is the Padlet for this session. Please refer to the seventh column ‘Webinar 7’ to access all of the resources, documents and links for this session.

Post Session tasks to finish off this section

  1. Complete the reflective diary for session 7. Be clear about your goals from today’s content and apply any new strategies with your learners.
  2. Go through all of the Padlet/slides for this session and make sure you have fully understood all of the content.
  3. Read the Zoom saved text chat (this will be emailed to you by the trainer) and make a note of any shared links, prompts or guidance offered by the trainer and other participants.
  4. Explore these resources relating to the topic for today’s session.
  5. Bowland maths: http://www.bowlandmaths.org.uk
  6. Nrich: http://nrich.maths.org
  7. Nrich activities mapped to Functional Skills: http://www.ocr.org.uk/Images/344824-mapping-to-nrich-resources.pdf
  8. Dan Meyer’s blog: http://blog.mrmeyer.co

Activities to prepare before the next session (pre-webinar tasks for session 8)

  1. Familiarise yourself with the specific subject content (FS new specs) relating to data handling. Make a note of any challenges and opportunities for your students.
  2. Explore this resource (bar modelling with averages) and how you could use it with your learners.
  3. Explore one of the resources with your learners from this pack.
  4. Continue planning your presentation task for session 10. Update your tutor accordingly