Treating symptoms vs addressing causes: Developing a deeper understanding of the causes of maths difficulties
By Jonathan Weedon
21 Mar
As teachers, we often use curriculum-based tests to help us understand what learners can and can’t do, and how this measures up against expectations for their age and stage. This information is then used to plan support and interventions for learners who are struggling. While often effective, this approach sometimes means that we end up addressing the symptoms of the difficulties rather than the underlying causes.
What causes maths anxiety?
By Judy Hornigold
21 Feb
Many learners with maths difficulties or dyscalculia have maths anxiety and they also tend to have a fixed mindset about their ability and/or potential in maths. These learners may have had years of experiencing failure in maths, having to follow a fast-paced curriculum and often being taught in a procedural way where the emphasis is on fact recall and speed. They have learnt to believe that they are no good at maths and never will be. But it doesn’t have to be that way! By understanding the causes of maths anxiety and how to alleviate it, we can turn the fortunes around for these learners. We can help them on the road to becoming numerate adults, who don’t fear maths and can cope with the maths that they need to do on a daily basis.
Identifying maths learning difficulties and supporting learners
By Sarah Minty, Lead Product Manager
02 Feb
Our new diagnostic tool, SNAP Maths, has been developed as an assessment for those with suspected maths learning difficulties/dyscalculia and maths anxiety, to identify the specific barriers to maths learning so strategies can be put in place. SNAP Maths tests a range of numerical skills and general cognitive skills that are crucial for maths learning.
Basic Number Screening Test | The standardised numeracy test of choice for Catch Up
By Dr Graham Sigley, Deputy Director of Catch Up
06 Oct
The Catch Up Numeracy intervention was developed in 2007 and 2008 and, during this research, Basic Number Screening Test (BNST) was the standardised test of choice in assessing and evaluating the learning impact of Catch Up Numeracy. Since then, Catch Up has continued to use BNST in its own research projects.
Salford Sentence Reading and Comprehension Test I Recommended by Catch Up for over 20 years
By Dr Graham Sigley, Deputy Director of Catch Up
05 Oct
For over 20 years Catch Up has been recommending that schools use SSRCT. Over that time 'the Salford Test' has been updated several times so that it takes account of curriculum, teaching and learning changes but the various versions of the test have continued to be easy to administer with the pupil data being reliable, valid and easy to access.