Teaching a teenager GCSE maths - how?

[montecristo]

I'm going to be teaching a friend's son GCSE maths. Separately, I do volunteer tutoring but it's disadvantaged kids at foundation level, or low higher, some of them don't know their multiplication tables. Teaching them is easy because anything makes a difference.

This boy is grade 8, and wants to be a dead cert 9. His main issues are focus and confidence.

Any advice on how to bring him up a level? Other than identifying areas he just doesn't know, which I can do, but I suspect he 'sort of' knows all the topics.

[Defcon5]

The guy that does the lottery syndicate on here is a tutor I think, may be worth messaging him

Spud99 or similar

[POIDH]

Sounds like you need a trained person, maybe someone who understands the process of learning really well. Like a teacher perhaps?

[quote]Teaching them is easy because anything makes a difference.
[/quote]
Showing how little you know of the teaching and learning process.
I was wondering if you volunteer as a bridge builder, a doctor or maybe a lawyer as well? I mean, at a basic level it is dead easy as everything has an impact, right?

[Sway]

If they're already very solid, but want to properly refine - then it sounds like my school's approach back in the day would work well.

Smash as many past papers as possible, under exam conditions. Then, in slow time, review every question/answer/perfect answer. Rinse and repeat.

It'll identify areas of weakness, and coach them out. It'll also massively help with confidence, as they get practiced they'll finish very early compared to deadline - and have repeatable top scores after a number of cycles through the process.

[RizzoTheRat]

My wife teaches maths and tutors GCSE, A-Level and IB. Coming up to exam season a lot of time seems to be going through past paper questions that that've already done in thier own time, to explain any bits they didn't fully understand. Earlier in the year though they work through specific topics, presumably in line with them doing those topics at school, to spend a bit more time on them and look at more examples.

[GreatGranny]

Tell him not to be such a swat, it won't get you the girl you fancy

[akirk]

Sway said:

If they're already very solid, but want to properly refine - then it sounds like my school's approach back in the day would work well.

Smash as many past papers as possible, under exam conditions. Then, in slow time, review every question/answer/perfect answer. Rinse and repeat.

It'll identify areas of weakness, and coach them out. It'll also massively help with confidence, as they get practiced they'll finish very early compared to deadline - and have repeatable top scores after a number of cycles through the process.

This...

in maths particularly - the top candidates will be using a different way of thinking from lower candidates - think of it more like a sport e.g. tennis - you practice your forehand swing until it is groved into the brain / put into the sub-conscious so that you don't any longer have to think about how to do the swing - so it is with maths - enough practice can push them into thinking conceptually - it doesn't really matter the specifics of the question - they are polished enough to know the principles

or in the words of Tall and Grey in their paper from c. 1993/4 - basic maths is procedural (you count on your fingers 5 and then another 3 to get the total of 8) - the next level is conceptual thinking where you just know concepts - e.g. that 5 is bigger than 3 and its order in the number line - so you start at 5 and add on 3 to get 8 - and then in a handful of top students they think in a combined way they refer to as proceptual - where concept and procedure are rolled up together into the subconscious - that child just knows that 5 + 3 is 8 - and therefore 50 + 30 is 80 etc.

For those who don't automatically think in that way - you can build it through repetition and grooving the skills in so that the thinking changes from one level to the next...

all reasoning to support Sway's approach above...
(and yes I have a teaching qualification / degree / inc. sports psychology etc. )

[duffy78]

POIDH said:

Showing how little you know of the teaching and learning process.
I was wondering if you volunteer as a bridge builder, a doctor or maybe a lawyer as well? I mean, at a basic level it is dead easy as everything has an impact, right?

This is bit of a prick comment, the guy said he was used to helping kids who from the sound of it struggle with basic maths. In that instance anything even small would have an impact.

Have you had a bad weekend or something? Wife been nagging you?

[Countdown]

montecristo said:

I'm going to be teaching a friend's son GCSE maths. Separately, I do volunteer tutoring but it's disadvantaged kids at foundation level, or low higher, some of them don't know their multiplication tables. Teaching them is easy because anything makes a difference.

This boy is grade 8, and wants to be a dead cert 9. His main issues are focus and confidence.

Any advice on how to bring him up a level? Other than identifying areas he just doesn't know, which I can do, but I suspect he 'sort of' knows all the topics.

if that's how motivated he and his parents are I'd suggest you point them towards a professional tutor.

It's one thing carrying out a basic service on your own daily, it's completely different if somebody then assumes you're a highly competent mechanic and asks you to service their SF90. It will need somebody at the top of their game to get the extra 5%/10% out of him.

[Countdown]

GreatGranny said:

Tell him not to be such a swat, it won't get you the girl you fancy

It's "swot" unless his main job is flykiller.

[Jaska]

duffy78 said:

This is bit of a prick comment

Came here to say the same, glad to beat me to it. Well done OP and don't listen to the haters.

With regards to focus, I found with my brother that practicing the actual exam situation can be very helpful - put them in a room they don't know with an invigilator they don't know, and practice that a little and it worked wonders for exam confidence.

[triggerhappy21]

Obviously you have some tutoring experience, but I'd echo above that teaching/tutoring requires educational experience and ideally in depth knowledge of the curriculum.

I found out to my cost trying to get my eldest through covid home schooling and then my version of 'tutoring' to help with his maths post covid. I'm sure I caused more harm than good. We've since got him a tutor and he is progressing superbly.

I'm very comfortable with maths, but knowing maths and teaching maths is two entirely different beasts.

[montecristo]

Thank you, these are useful ideas, especially about teaching him to think differently - I suspect he won't find the 'maths part' of it very hard, but needs the right structure for approaching questions. And yes, repetition, although that's more for his parents to enforce since I don't have the clout.

[Skyedriver]

Just here to add, my son did maths to Nat 5 (sort of GCE O level) level here in Scotland a few years ago and I found it very difficult myself!
The methods of doing things now seems very different to when I did maths despite using maths for 48 years at work.
His Grandfather was a maths teacher but is 87 and while methods have changed he had kept up with the system it seems. He was sending stuff up by post every week, even my wife, his daughter, struggled and she has A level maths to her name.

Your lad will either "get it" or not. My lad struggled even though he's a very bright lad.

[GliderRider]

One of the things I found most useful when trying to relearn calculus was to watch online videos of a teacher going through the method on a whiteboard. When I got to the bit where I usually got lost, I could keep rewinding the video and watching that bit over and over again, until I understood what the teacher was doing and saying. Only then did I get it.