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Math: The very word fills children’s heads with dread. Parents too. Youngsters fear the pure, puzzling abstraction of math. Yet they need to know it, and not just because they think their teacher is really, really mean. “The whole world is mathematics,” says Cathy Seeley, president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, in Anaheim recently to attend the organization’s annual convention. “No other subject is more important.” And no other subject is more difficult to teach, and fraught with so much controversy. In response to public fears that California schoolchildren were falling behind those of foreign countries, the state adopted a tough set of mathematics standards for each grade. “The current math curriculum is far more rigorous than today’s parents remember from their own days at school,” says Dave Chamberlain math resource teacher overseeing the math curriculum for the Capistrano Unified School District. Chamberlain urges parents to check the official state standards for themselves,grade by grade, at cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/mthmain.asp. (Click on the Standards & Frameworks button on the left for Orange County and Inland Empire schools.) Those who do may be in for a shock. Their children, and their teachers, face daunting challenges. Not only are the standards tough, the language of the standards can be confusing, even to teachers. Within the confines of these rules, there remain as many different approaches to teaching mathematics as there are teachers. “No single approach works for every student,” Seeley of NCTM says. “For example, boys and girls learn differently, some learn visually, some learn by handling objects or materials, some learn verbally by talking it through. Teachers who recognize this and have the tools can structure a classroom so that there are different activities going on at the same time, different ways of learning to suit different students.” What parents can do Parents can assist their children’s math studies by talking to teachers and attending classes to understand what their children are expected to learn. Many children can be helped by simply including math in daily activities. “The most important thing is to show them that everything they do consists of math,” Seeley says. “Everything counts.” Seeley advises parents to ask children to total purchases at the market, to use fractions by figuring out prices. For example, ask children, “If these oranges are 3 pounds for a dollar, how much is one pound? If these oranges weigh 8 ounces each, how much will one of them cost?” In some areas, students already apply mathematics, but don’t understand it as math: Children who complain that they can’t do percentages instantly know their favorite baseball player’s batting average. They might have an easier time with percentages if parents related their studies to the things in which they are interested. Helping with homework A lot of parents admit to their children that they aren’t good at math, but this lowers their expectations. “If parents say they are bad at math, it tells kids that it’s OK not to like math or be good at it.” Chamberlain says. “Would you say the same thing about reading? Probably not.” Instead, parents should work with their children and learn together, Chamberlain says. “Don’t just send the kids upstairs to do their homework. Make math a game; every problem is like solving a puzzle. And if you as a parent don’t know something, ask the kids to explain it to you the better they can verbalize the concepts, the better they understand them.” What teachers can do Teachers are human beings and can lose their perspective. “One of the biggest challenges we face is getting around the apparent limitations of students,” Seeley says, “the belief that children can’t learn.” Seeley advises teachers to listen to their students. “Give them attention and respect. Teachers need to listen more and talk less. If you listen to your students, you will find out what they know.” She practices what she preaches. As a Peace Corps volunteer, she taught pre-calculus in a mud hut in the African desert nation of Burkino Faso. “These children had nothing, nothing but an eagerness to learn and they succeeded.” One lesson for teachers is to adjust their approach to teaching boys. “The system does not serve boys well,” Seeley says, pointing out that boys are more active, noisier, more fidgety than girls, and often suffer for it. “Teachers should get them involved in learning,” Seeley says, “rather than expect them to merely be quiet and listen.” Stan Brin of Aliso Viejo is a regular contributor to Churm Publishing, Inc. This is his first report for OC Family Magazine. The Asian approach American elementary students do as well or better than students in other countries, but fall behind in high school, especially to those from Asian countries. The reason may lie in the two opposing trends in math teaching, what one math observer calls “a mile wide versus a mile deep.” California’s math standards, written by a committee of professional mathematicians rather than teachers, follow the wide approach. Students are assigned as much material as possible on as many topics as possible. The belief is that the more material a student studies, the more is learned. Textbooks are very thick and very heavy. Other states follow a similar philosophy. Another approach, favored in Asia, stresses depth of comprehension rather than amounts of material covered. Students are taught fundamental math concepts and given time to learn these concepts well and retain them. Teachers have time to apply concepts to the real world. Textbooks are thin booklets, but the workbooks are much larger. As a practical matter, many math teachers believe that the contest between the two approaches was settled years ago, but they see a fierce, uphill struggle before the Asian approach is adopted in California. By Stan Brin |
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