As a Second Level Teacher of Maths, I’m constantly working with students who have not successfully acquired the basic stepping stones of numeracy in their Primary education and as a result cannot access the concepts required at second level curriculum. Sometimes the gaps appear so vast, they seem impossible to breach. So miraculous work is definitely required!

The reaction to maths problems is often paralysis, failure to engage, and those

of us faced with this reaction are nonplussed as to how to proceed. Reteach the primary curriculum or something new.

Students who are incredibly street wise and quick-witted in the face of certain mathematical scenarios are reduced to being ‘bunnies in the headlights’. My mission is to find alternative scenarios that include computational thinking, problem solving, etc., in fact any non-threatening activity that uses ‘numeric’ skills but are suitably distracting and distanced from the negativity of maths-test paralysis.

If you’ve never come across this level of numeracy deficiency, well good for you. If you understand what I mean, than hopefully I may soon have some activities posted that tap into student intelligence and innate skill sets that may change attitudes.