Research School Network: ‘Making Every Maths Lesson Count’ Book review by Beth Freeman, NQT – Making Every Maths Lesson Count

Emma McCrae’s Making Every Maths Lesson Count is one of the latest editions to the MELC family, a series of books inspired by Shaun Allison and Andy Tharby’s original of the same name. As with others, it is underpinned by the six pedagogical principles of challenge, explanation, modelling, practice, feedback and questioning.

In her slightly larger version of the book – designed to accommodate the maths diagrams to illustrate her examples clearly – McCrae outlines 52 high-impact strategies designed to streamline teacher workload and increase the level of challenge in the maths classroom. This book is a resource every Maths teacher should have on their shelf.

Each chapter is grounded in a wealth of research findings on memory, learning and motivation and the ideas and subsequent explanations are clear and logically sequenced. McCrea provides a host of practical examples to support each strategy and offers well thought-out activities that can be easily implemented into the classroom of a busy teacher.

As an NQT, I found the continual reinforcement around the importance of reflective practice and making small improvements to your teaching where possible was a nice continuum from my Initial Teacher Training. I’m sure that as progress through my career I will revisit this great book for guidance and use it a lot to develop new approaches within the classroom.

A stand out aspect of the book, was the way McCrae outlines the danger of the ​‘Curse of Knowledge’. As teachers we sometimes take for granted our knowledge and make assumptions in our teaching based on what we know, not what the students know, which causes significant problems and means we gloss over the knowledge needed to be successful. McCrea suggested many ways to combat this curse of knowledge to help students learn.

This book should be a point of reference for any maths teacher. I am lucky enough to have found it at the beginning of my career where I can use it to shape my practice and improve the learning of the students that I teach.

by Beth Freeman, Newly Qualified Teacher 

Greenshaw High School