I often feel as though I am bouncing between two separate worlds, at least concerning mathematics teaching that is. The local school boards and faculties of education seem to say one thing, but the world outside of these institutions says another. One emphasizes new and improved technologies, while the other just wants their children to understand math. The link below is from Global TV News from January 9, 2014. It tells about the desire of some parents (and university professors for that matter) for math teaching to go back more towards the teaching manner of the past.
http://globalnews.ca/news/1070386/parents-across-canada-fight-for-return-to-traditional-math-lessons/
All I know is that the math scores do keep going down and yet so often, of the multitude of explanations given, teaching methodology is often missed. Perhaps too much energy has gone into a failing system that some just can't bring themselves to abandon it. Despite the seemingly continuous rewriting of math curriculum in Ontario, the scores just keep dropping. Why don't we look at the methodologies of the countries that are deemed as having a better approach to teaching math than we do?
Having just finished my B.Ed., I don't have much experience at all in the math classroom unfortunately. However I've largely heard negative things from parents and teachers alike about the math curriculum/textbooks now. I've heard many people express this desire to go back to 'traditional' math teaching. Obviously, I don't have much experience in the area, but I suspect that striking a balance between the two would be somewhat beneficial.
ReplyDeleteI think where we really need to change things is in the youngest grades (absolutely no offence intended to teachers of younger grades). I think that there is something to be said about the ability to do mental math. With the accessibility of calculators, a whole way of thinking and looking at numbers has been lost. When doing the drills as a child for addition all the way to division, we learned patterns, tricks, shortcuts, and relationships that, although are not directly built on, deepened our understanding and ease of learning of mathematical concepts later on. As a result, we also built character traits that made us better students and people: patience, dedication, perseverance, self-confidence, and independence that stuck with us for life. Today, with student's dependence on calculators, they lose so much more than the mere mental math skills, they lose the desire to try something on their own and take risks because they're not confident enough that they can do it on their own anymore. It has been shown that strong mental math abilities lead to higher academic success in other subjects too. All these new technologies are wonderful and certainly have their place, but I feel that in the early grades, the old way of doing things, like drills, should remain. Get a good solid foundation first, then the rest will fall into place.
ReplyDeleteI know of someone who likes to begin the school year by handing out a class set flashcard packs that they bought at a dollar store. Each student gets their own that they can take home and work on with someone each night. I have heard this helps tremendously. Sounds pretty good to me.
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