Mathematics in The PYP

The PYP views mathematics not as a fixed body of knowledge to be transmitted but as a way of thinking and a language for making meaning. Mathematics helps children to make sense of the world, to describe and to analyse and to solve problems. When learned through its relationship with the real world mathematics becomes meaningful to young children. They can construct their own awareness of its use and its importance to them.

The mathematics scope and sequence identifies the major expectations considered essential. These expectations are arranged into five strands. In Number and Pattern and Function students enquire into our number system, its operations, patterns and relationships. This is where students become fluent users of the language of mathematics as they learn to use its symbols and conventions, and to ’play’ with numbers as mathematicians do.

The remaining strands, Data Handling, Measurement, and Shape and Space are the areas of mathematics that other disciplines, such as the social and natural sciences, use to research, describe and represent aspects of their domains. Topics in these three strands are best learned by being used in meaningful contexts in and across those disciplines. Mathematics provides models, systems and processes for handling data making and comparing measurements and solving spatial problems. As a discipline, mathematics has no interest in, or ability to determine the content of charts, graphs, tables, shapes or measurements. The content must come from the subject of study. Children become confident mathematical thinkers when they need mathematics to collect, organise and interpret data, and when they create and solve problems they believe to be important and perceive as relevant. They view themselves as measurers when they choose what to measure and decide on the best tool and procedure to use.