"It’s up to all of us to improve kids’ math skills"

I found this interesting article in the Globe and Mail, that discusses how although recent scores on provincial assessments are low, they do not tell the whole story. It talks about how there are many hard-working, caring teachers who want to help their students improve. One way, to do this would be by giving teachers (specifically math teachers) the support they need to improve their skills and knowledge to make them even more effective in the classroom.

“All of us who teach mathematics should always strive to further our own mathematical abilities by doing mathematics ourselves and by learning at least a bit more beyond the level at which we teach. Faculties of education should devote more resources to improving the mathematical abilities and confidence of their graduates. We as a society should devote more resources to providing current teachers with time during the school day to improve their subject-specific knowledge and ability,” The Globe and Mail (full article attached).

The article also points out the importance of not only literacy but numeracy. It discusses how there needs to be a better balance between the focus on literacy and numeracy in society. “People rarely seem embarrassed to tell you that they were never any good at math, but thankfully a small percentage in Canada are illiterate or would admit proudly to not being able to read” The Globe and Mail (full article attached). Why is this the case? Mathematics is all around us and part of every aspect of our lives.

In a recent post, we discussed implementing rotary-based teaching to ensure math teachers were very knowledgeable and comfortable in the subject area. This could be one solution. Or we could help to improve current teacher’s math skills to enhance their teaching. What do you think? What do you think would work best?