BACK TO FRONT MATHS

Back-to-Front Maths is currently ACARA compliant.  The journal problems and blast activities are written to cover not only the content, but also the Proficiency Strands from the Australian Curriculum in depth.  Alignment tables, planning tools, assessment items and criteria, moderating tasks and teaching tips are all included. 

Back-to-Front Maths is a problem-based pedagogical approach.  It is designed to find student misconceptions about fundamental mathematical concepts and to lead students through an analytical process that confronts these wrong ideas and leads to student self-correction.  These ‘aha’ moments lead to significantly increased retention of ideas by students, compared with memorisation and practice, and therefore significantly reduce the need for “reteaching” of concepts.  By focusing heavily on the patterns and principles of mathematics, students develop deep understanding of mathematical concepts.  

Back-to-Front Maths provides differentiation across multiple levels for every Journal Problem and Blast activity.  We believe that we are the first resource in Australia to offer this.  Each activity challenges students to think through content that is appropriate to their level, solving problems and making generalisations.  Keeping all students challenged, engaged and learning leads to improved student behaviour and also makes teaching much more time-efficient.

Every school using Back-to-Front Maths has reported improvements in student results within six months.  Most schools have also reported improved NAPLAN scores after only one term, with a large proportion of these being dramatic increases in the number of students meeting the national benchmarks.  As Back-to-Front Maths is designed to teach students how to think through and solve unrehearsed and non-standard problems this helps dramatically when students are faced with the unrehearsed and non-standard problems in NAPLAN.

Download a copy of the MAWA publications flyer here