Thursday, November 16, 2006

math drill can be boring

BACK TO BASICS FOR MATHS TEACHING IN USA
The teaching of maths in American schools is turning away from child-centred "reform maths" and back towards basic drills and memorisation. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics signalled the change of course in a report issued in September. The Bush administration, has a panel studying the research on teaching maths. Several states, including Washington, Florida and Utah are re-examining their curriculums.
The ferment has been caused by growing awareness that, at a time of increasing globalisation, the math skills of US children simply do not measure up: American eighth-graders lag far behind on an international test.
In part, the maths wars have grown out of a struggle between professional mathematicians, who say too many American students never master basic skills, and maths educators, who say children who construct their own problem-solving strategies retain their math skills better than those who just memorise the algorithm that produces the correct answer. ~ New York Times, November 14
I have a feeling that part of the reason there are "math wars" between what is so obvious a need to master the basic skills of arithmetic and the educators who are supposed to teach those skills is laziness. Laziness on the part of teachers, students, and parents. Sometimes I can see this in myself, when I don't want to drill math facts again, but I know there is an accountability in homeschooling that is just not present in the public school setting. If student Jane Doe does not learn the times tables by heart the teacher can blame student and parents, parents can blame the teacher, and the student can blame parents and the teacher. With all this effort expended in blaming others, there isn't much left for sitting down and learning the material. Therefore, Jane can get all the way to 12th grade having never memorized the 9 times tables. If my children do not learn arithmetic I can only blame myself. So, I am much more likely to drill, make flash cards, and make sure they learn it. In any subject, I am much more likely to search for a solution to a problem than to play the blame game. And while it is a noble thing to learn problem-solving strategies, this argument is a smoke screen, because obviously complex thinking is useless unless basic skills are memorized first.

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