Structured pedagogy: How far will it take us?

• In Event: Foundational mathematics programs at scale: Affordances and challenges

Proposal

Children around the world, and especially in LMICs, are struggling to acquire basic skills in foundational math. For example, in South Africa, many students are up to three years below their actual grade by the time they are in Grade 6, because of a knowledge gap which starts in the early grades (Fritz, Long, Herzog, Balzer, Ehlert & Henning, 2020). As a response, structured pedagogy programs have been used in numerous countries around the world. While there is some evidence of their success in terms of learning outcomes, the evidence shows that it is not sufficient to help students acquire the skills they need in foundational numeracy. For example, a persistent issue is the prevalence of unit counting for basic operations, suggesting that students are not receiving the type of instruction needed to move to more abstract levels of doing math, which is essential for learning subsequent skills (Hoadley, 2007; Venkat & Bowie, 2013)

In this paper, we draw on data sets of qualitative and quantitative classroom observations conducted as part of the Numeracy at Scale study (see Stern et.al., 2023), and a randomized control study carried out in the Polokwane province by Funda Wande (Ardington, 2024), both studying structured pedagogy programs for early math.

We conducted additional analysis on the classroom observations across these programs to ask, how are structured pedagogy programs supporting teachers to deliver instruction that effectively supports students in early math? What are the affordances of a structured pedagogy program, and what are the gaps? We share preliminary results, showing that structured pedagogy programs reduced teacher errors in math, and support teachers to deliver coherent explanations of content that are logically sequenced and developmentally appropriate. We also found that these programs do not necessarily support the teacher adequately to help students think about the mathematics they are doing and develop higher-level understandings that will allow them to move to the abstract level. For this, we offer suggestions of possible next steps.

Authors

• Yasmin Sitabkhan, Math Mosaic Global

• Ingrid Marta Sapire, Funda Wande

• Wendi Ralaingita, RTI International