Week 4: The Five Proficiencies

The poster represents the five-maths proficiencies; which includes communicating, reasoning, fluency, understanding and problem solving. These five proficiencies are not meant to be in a certain order as not one proficiency is more important. The five proficiencies relate to Newman’s Error analysis, which is where we are able to ask five simple questions in order to quietly assess a child’s understanding of mathematic skills. These questions can include but are not limited to, “can the students read the words of the problems?” “Can students understand the meaning?” “Can students determine a way to solve the problem?” “Can students do the mathematics?” and “can they write the answer?” The visual that I created allowed myself to show my understanding of the five-maths proficiencies as well as allowing me to make an easier tool for current and future educators to use in the classroom. I believe that I have personally used the five proficiencies in my day-to-day life without even realising. They are five parts to a maths problem that allow you to understand where a child may be struggling, and allows myself as a future educator to come up with some simple strategies to help the child progress to the next stage of the problem.