Closing the Gap in a Mathematics Classroom

There is a clear gap in mathematics education.  Over time, students who do well in math continuously do better and better throughout their educational career; whereas, students who do poorly in math continuously decline.  The difference between the students in the former group and the students in the latter group creates a mathematical gap.  This gap is already very evident in younger grades and continuously increases as students move through the educational system and on to their secondary education.  Many people—sadly, some teachers—believe that this gap is inevitable.  However, I believe that as teachers, one of our jobs is to reduce this gap as much as we can.  As teachers, we want all of our students to be able to succeed.  Our classrooms should be beneficial and be engaging for all students, giving them the opportunity to succeed, no matter their current level of learning.

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One way to accomplish this is through proper use of diagnostic assessment.  Diagnostic assessment is part of Assessment for Learning.  It occurs before instruction, with a purpose of determining where students are in their level of learning.  Using diagnostic assessment in your classroom is very effective when wanting to differentiate students’ learning in order to reduce—or even close—the gap in your math classroom.

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In my course on Teaching Mathematics at the Intermediate/Senior Level, we explored a resource website called gapclosing.ca.  This website includes many different resources that can assist teachers in closing the gap in their mathematics classroom.  There are nine different mathematic modules that focus on common areas of difficulty in a Grade 9 math class.  At the beginning of each module, students are required to complete a diagnostic assessment.  Questions on this diagnostic assessment are specifically made to identify key problem areas students are likely to have.  I believe that this is very efficient because not only does this diagnostic assessment help the teacher become aware of a student’s level of learning, it also provides an opportunity for differentiating instruction.  The teacher is given a chart that relates to the diagnostic assessment, telling the teacher which intervention materials a student should proceed with based on which questions in the diagnostic assessment the student had trouble with.  This is very beneficial because students are able to expand their knowledge on the specific topics that they are having difficulty in, rather than completing everything in the module.  This allows students who are falling behind to further their learning with some personalized interventions, whereas students who are doing very well in math do not get disengaged from their learning due to boredom; therefore, the gap in mathematics begins to close.

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One of my positive qualities of being a teacher is that I trust in any student’s ability to succeed in mathematics.  Everyone is capable of doing well in a mathematics classroom.  However, this success is largely dependent on the teacher’s instruction.  If a teacher does not believe in his/her students, or believes that the mathematics gap in education is inevitable, I believe students will be able to recognize this.  This situation would likely result in the teacher not only maintaining the large gap in mathematic learners, but also widening it.  Teachers’ belief in their students has a large impact on student success.  I plan on making students aware that I believe in them and that there is not a capped amount of success in my classroom.  I will definitely be using gapclosing.ca in my future classroom.  I hope to close the gap in mathematics as much as I can.