Raising attainment using SOLE in mathematics for 11-12 year old learners

"This project addressed the development of key competences in pupils and teachers in the teaching and learning of mathematics for pupils aged 11-12 years in Glasgow, Warsaw and Valencia in order primarily to raise attainment. This approach of innovative learning of mathematics was a development of the ideas and beliefs of Professor Sugata Mitra of Newcastle University introduced to the project management team at the 2015 UK national eTwinning conference where Sugata Mitra showed by experiment in India that if motivated and suitably led pupils will in effect teach themselves. His 2013 TED talk showed his success and won first prize. During the 2015 British Council eTwinning Conference Sugata Mitra explained his ideas and beliefs by Video Conference and the Project resulted from that Video Conference. Sixteen schools took part in the Project, five in Glasgow, six in Valencia and five in Warsaw. Over the three years of the Project over 400 Activities took place in all 30 classrooms directly effecting over 3000 pupils. The task of the Activities of the Project was to work in groups to answer a ""big question"" which is an integral part of the SOLE methodology derived from the maths curriculum being taught in each city. The teachers were trained as SOLE facilitators in the first transnational meeting in Glasgow to not ‘teach’ but help pupils with their SOLE (Self Organised Learning Environment) The key competencies addressed by the Project included: teamwork, responsibility, commitment, motivation, decision making, communication, leadership, digital skills. The Project ethos was entrepreneurial to develops self confidence and belief and this emerging self confidence was one of the most notable impacts on learners engagement and motivation to learn mathematics through SOLE.This project involved the pupils finding answers to complex questions by and for themselves by employing critical thinking and using social skills. This innovative method of teaching mathematics employed all the positives of this digital age was dependent for its success on pupils fully using the internet to acquire knowledge and understanding and using social media to communicate and disseminate findings and conclusions. The key objective was to improve teaching and learning in Maths with a focus on the last year of primary education and to train teachers in the implementation of SOLE. This was achieved across the partnership with a high success rate. The other key objective was the production of the GUIDE TO SOLE. This was to enhance professional knowledge and understanding to SOLE to allow it to be used in classrooms across Europe and move what was available on SOLE from academic research and individual case studies to a user friendly guide which collated the professional experience and the experience of learners into a unique guide to implementing SOLE in the classroom derived from actual and concrete experiences and outcomes on the ground. The impact may have secured a wider capacity if the final transnational meeting had not been cancelled as a result of covid. At that meeting all of the acquired expertise from the 16 participating schools was to be disseminated at a conference with a national audience including a presentation from a member of the SOLE Newcastle University team. It would also have been the beginning of the guide’s introduction to a wider audience. At the present moment the participating Local Authorities are using SOLE in classrooms and planning when CPD resumes fully to embed the use of SOLE methodology in future professional development. The results and impact of introducing SOLE have been significant and introduced all schools to the realisation that self organised learning is empowering and engages learners more vulnerable to drop out in Maths when being instructed in traditional methods but also across the spectrum of all learners SOLE has proven to motivate, inform and engage, developing autonomy and the skills to direct learning in meaningful and sustainable ways which equip young people with the skills to direct that learning into the future."