A zero-sum game

A maths programme lifting results for Māori and Pacific kids has been cut as the government pursues a standardised approach.

- LAWRENCE WATT

In a South Auckland school, a group of Year 8 students are doing maths. They're covering basic algebra but it's delivered in a uniquely New Zealand way that's won attention internationally.

Today, Koru School teacher David Ahlquist has set a challenge: the class must “organise” a ki-o-rahi tournament (ki-o-rahi is a fast-moving ball game, similar to touch rugby, that’s popular in schools). Ahlquist divides the mostly 12-year-olds into groups. Each must figure out how many games each team must play in order to play everyone in the class. They're enthusiastic, taking turns to present their answers on a whiteboard Ahlquist has set up in the school library.

“There can be wrong answers, but the group is often self-correcting,” says Koru deputy principal Bronwyn Jones as Ahlquist writes a formula on the board that sums up the exercise. Jones and Ahlquist are old hands at this pedagogy, known as “Bobbie maths”.

More formally called DMIC (Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities) Intervention, the system of teaching was created by teacher-turned-education academic, Bobbie Hunter MNZM, who is of Cook Islands descent. Concerned about the falling rates of achievement and lack of engagement in maths by Pasifika children in Kiwi schools, she devised a programme based on real-world examples and group learning, rich with cultural context. These include, say, problem-solving while planning how to build a waka or design a tīvaevae quilt.

The system works for any group where references familiar to the children from their everyday lives are part of the teaching, be they country kids, migrant children, Māori or Pasifika.