Mathematics is the easiest subject to teach badly, according to star YouTuber and maths teacher Eddie Woo.
Locating a chapter in a hefty textbook, looking at worked examples, and mindlessly completing dozens of drills is how most people remember maths class, but Woo says it should not be that way.
“Real maths, when you get the opportunity to help a student develop genuine understanding and get some insight into something that matters in their everyday life, is kind of amazing to experience,” he said.
Eddie Woo and Kate Wilson. Wilson is undertaking the NSW government’s maths retraining program.Credit: Rhett Wyman
He spoke to the first batch of the state’s public school teachers who will be trained in what he calls the “dark art” of mathematics as part of a Department of Education program to get more qualified maths teachers in classrooms.
Woo was involved in the design of the program, which aims to reduce the estimated 100,000 students in public schools across the state being taught by teachers with no formal mathematics qualification.
Demand for maths teachers for years 11 and 12 is expected to grow significantly in the next three years after the government ruled that mathematics would be compulsory for students graduating year 12 from 2026. Of the 75,493 students studying at least one HSC course last year, only 81 per cent of them were studying some level of maths.
According to 2020 Department of Education data, 22 per cent of those teaching maths to year 7-10 students were not university trained in the subject. Students taught by unqualified teachers received lower HSC results on average, the data showed.
Woo said the best mathematics teachers had solid content knowledge and were engaging, but might be asking students to complete only three questions in a single lesson.
“If you have a look at many of the east Asian education systems that tend to dominate in [global rankings] like PISA and TIMSS, what you’ll find is that during a given lesson, they will almost never set students an exercise with 30 problems or 50 problems,” he said.
“They’ll probably give students a maximum of say, three problems to do in an hour – they’re very sophisticated problems, they’re deep problems.
The graduating classes of 2026 will be the first for whom maths will be compulsory in years 11 and 12.Credit: iStock
“The bread and butter of teaching and learning is not actually just ‘do this’ and do the same thing mindlessly and repetitively.”
Woo said extra demands on teachers in the form of administration had made it tricky for them to craft a unique learning experience every single lesson.
“Why is there widespread reliance on a textbook to make the substance of our teaching? And the answer is because teachers are strapped for time to be able to plan out their lessons,” he said.
“We often say maths is the easiest subject to teach badly.”
Teachers in the mathematics retraining program will be paid to do either a masters, graduate diploma or graduate certificate. They will train through the University of Newcastle and will be assigned an official mentor who will receive training from the University of Sydney.
History and English teacher Kate Wilson from Trangie Central School in the state’s Central West studied humanities rather than mathematics at university. While she had worked as a maths tutor, she never received any formal training in the subject. As the shortage of mathematics teachers grew in the past few years, so did the demand for her skills.
“Almost my entire teaching load is senior maths,” she said.
She had since decided to enrol in the program.
“I thought, well, let’s see if there’s something more I can do better through studying more at university.”
Bowraville Central School’s Grant Watson trained as a primary school teacher before teaching high school students mathematics up to year 10. He joined the program because he wanted to bolster his skills.
“It is about trying to engage the kids in building a passion for learning. You work hard at engaging them and making them love mathematics as much as you do,” he said.
His mentor in the program, Adam McCarthy, said teaching senior mathematics in years 11 and 12 was difficult, usually requiring support from colleagues. But in the lower year levels, engaging the students was the most important thing.
“I retrained, I went from an engineering degree, ended up a maths teacher, I have never looked back,” he said.
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