The 5 whys

When a school joins my Numeracy Teachers Academy, I offer to conduct a maths 'audit' with the leaders to gauge the 'current state of affairs' in their teaching and learning of Numeracy.

Over the past 2.5 years I have worked with many schools and one of the most common issues leaders share is something along the lines of “our students struggle to apply their maths knowledge”. If you are reading this and thinking “that is a major challenge at our school too”… rest assured, you are not alone! 

One strategy that I find to be really useful in this context is applying the '5 whys' technique. The '5 whys' is a problem-solving technique developed by Sakichi Toyoda, a Japanese inventor who played a major part in creating the Toyota Motor Corporation. He developed this technique to use in engineering and manufacturing contexts, however it has since been used in many other industries- from self-help through to education.

Basically, the 5 whys involves asking a series of “why” questions until you get to the root cause on an issue/challenge/ problem.

If we were to take the challenge I see most often in schools- “our students struggle with problem solving” we can use the 5 whys to unpack this further:

Challenge Identified: Our students struggle to apply their maths knowledge and problem solve (this is often identified through NAPLAN data)

1. Why?

Because they struggle with comprehending the worded problems

2. Why?

Because they don't understand the words and context of the problems

3. Why?

Because it is challenging for teachers to know exactly which 'maths' words to teach

4. Why?

Because we are not sure what words have already been taught by previous teachers 

5. Why?

Because we haven't set up a systematic whole school approach to teaching vocabulary.  

The outcome of this particular ‘5 whys' suggests it would be worthwhile for us, as a school, to be more systematic in our teaching of maths related vocabulary. If you read this blog, you would know I am a big advocate for explicitly teaching vocabulary and HIGHLY recommend using this book from Paul Swan and David Dunstan. https://drpaulswan.com.au/shop/my-word-book-mathematics/ to guide this process.

The '5 whys' technique allows us to drill down and gain clarity on the real cause of the challenges we are seeing in our schools and classrooms. But there may be (and often is) several interrelated reasons contributing to a particular challenge.  

For example:

Our students struggle to apply their maths knowledge and problem solve 

1. Why?

Because they are often given worksheets, so they are rarely asked to think deeply

2. Why? 

Because worksheets are 'easy' for teachers to find in the textbook or on the internet

3. Why?

 Because teachers are not sure what a high quality activity/resource looks like  

4.Why?

Because teachers are not confident in their own maths ability

5. Why?

Because the teachers have low pedagogical content knowledge in maths

For me, the biggest challenge for schools is teacher knowledge and confidence in mathematics. Over and over this comes through in the '5 whys' I work on with schools.

Many teachers went to school in the 80s and 90s when maths was largely based around rote learning. This means they have not been scaffolded to develop a deep understanding of the maths they are now required to teach. As a result, they find it very challenging to teach their students in a way that allows them to develop a deep understanding of the concepts. Many teachers literally have to begin from the start and 'learn' maths again! It is our job as leaders to support this process. It is critical we build in time for developing the Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) of our teachers if we wish to improve teaching and learning outcomes. Professional reading and ongoing high quality professional development is critical to this cycle. 

This week, I encourage you to spend five minutes, take a challenge at your school and use the '5 whys' technique to explore it a little further and decide upon an action to begin to address the challenge! You may even use this in your personal life...

Challenge Identified: Running late to school pick up

Why? I get stuck in traffic

Why? It is a busy time of day on the roads

Why? I don't leave early enough to arrive on time

Why? I am always trying to fit in one last task before I leave, and I lose track of time

Why? I haven't set an alarm for 3:15pm

Action: Setting a daily alarm for 3:15pm! 

Have a great week!

Reference:

Pryor, M. G., & White, J. M. (1993). The effectiveness of the 5‐why method to identify the root causes of a problem. Quality and Reliability Engineering International, 9(2), 141-146.