The teaching and learning cycle

Teaching a unit of work will need careful initial and ongoing planning, informed by an assessment of children's learning. A cycle that supports this process in the Primary Framework for mathematics is set out below.

assess - plan - teach - practise - apply - review

The cycle indicates the importance of undertaking some initial assessment at the start of the unit to monitor children's preparedness for the work. This initial assessment may indicate a need to revisit some earlier learning to refresh the knowledge, skills or understanding needed to ensure children cope with and make progress in the unit. Day-to-day assessment of children's achievements and progress over the unit will provide information about children's general attainment and progress and identify any children who might need additional support. Regular reviews provide opportunity to take stock of children's learning.

Reviews of learning are a key teaching and assessment tool. They can involve brief in-lesson pauses to determine whether children can recall some knowledge or a key idea, can share with one another the next steps in a calculation or can explain to their partner a strategy that demonstrates they are able to solve the problem. The reviews can be more substantial and take up a significant part of the lesson or form a plenary before some new learning is introduced. Such reviews are carefully planned with clear learning objectives in mind. The aim is to assess the depth of children's learning and use this information to plan the next steps. These reviews will involve probing questions, extended dialogue or a series of short activities that draw on past learning and incorporate use and application of the mathematics that has been taught.