Three important terms: 1-indicators of progress, 2- illustrations, and 3- teaching strategies and activities

1- indicators of progress

The Mathematics Developmental Continuum P – 10 is structured around identifying indicators of progress. These indicators:

  • Are points on the learning continuum that highlight ‘critical understandings’ required by students in order to progress in their mathematical learning
  • often highlight common misconceptions of students
  • support teachers’ in deepening their understanding of student growth in mathematics through research-based descriptors of achievement[MK1]
  • Support purposeful teaching by informing teachers of the progress students should be making and the types of learning and teaching experiences appropriate for further progress to occur. In this context teachers will use the indicators of progressas part of their ongoing assessment and monitoring[MK2].

2- illustrations

Within each indicator of progress, the Continuum presents illustrations.

Illustrations are designed to:

  • exemplify the prior knowledge, skills and behaviours of the students. This is often through focussed observations or diagnostic tasks
  • determine where students are in their mathematical thinking and uncovering any misconceptions present

3- Teaching strategies and activities

Teaching strategies and activities are then identified. These are specific tasks that are designed to support conceptual understanding building from the students’ existing ideas. Whilst more than one activity may be best to support student progress, these activities do not represent a unit plan or a whole class lesson.

[MK1]So here they claim “research-based” but do they provide any evidence of the studies that were done?

[MK2]Can you open the page on the website where you found this info and then copy/past the URL as a source at the bottom of this section – we’ll need to use the URL in the reference and we want it to point to the precise location where the info can be found. You can repeat this process for the “illustrations” and “teaching strategies and activities “ or just let me know if all three are at the same URL?