Mr. John Irwin:

I am a qualified maths teacher. That is where I started in education. I would have to admit that I was a little sceptical when project maths came in first but once we became far more engaged with it, the approach in project maths of looking at a problem in a collaborative format with the students in the class and having more teamwork, rather than looking at it as an individual pursuit, is far more beneficial. The emphasis in project maths is far more towards understanding and not just content. When I did higher level maths as a student, I learned an awful lot of tricks for how to do different things. I could integrate and differentiate but I might not have known why I was doing it. Now, the emphasis is more on understanding why and the why is asked a hell of a lot more. Focus on the curriculum is the first thing that had to change and it has changed. That is only for the good. Methodologies are being promoted through the junior cycle for teachers, JCT, programme and through the project maths teams, who really provided a high standard of training at the time of the introduction. That should be ongoing for all teachers the moment. People must embrace that fully, take that on board and try to divert from the idea that maths is about the brilliant maths teacher who knew all and presented to the class and they just listened and were basically passive. They should be active participants who are engaged in teamwork and working together to try to self-direct their learning to a degree where they are the ones who are actually teasing out the problems and trying to get the solutions, rather than it just being a presentation all the time.

The emphasis has changed, and I believe we will see improvements in that area.