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Parents often get a jump on formal instruction when it comes to language and literacy by reading to their toddlers and teaching the alphabet before their kids ever set foot in a classroom. But getting a head start on mathematics is often restricted to teaching children to count, says Lynn McGarvey, a professor of elementary education at the University of Alberta whose research looks at teaching and learning math in early childhood.
McGarvey says her research focus on instilling mathematical concepts in young learners aims to promote numeracy the way literacy has been emphasized as a foundational educational experience.
"When educators and parents create opportunities for mathematical engagement in day-to-day activities, then children will experience mathematics not just as a skill or a tool, but a way of thinking and being in the world," she says.
McGarvey says there are a few things math-minded parents and early childhood educators can think about when interacting with young learners.
I've tried lots of things to get my kids interested in math. So far, the most effective has been demonstrating the power of purposeful laziness. What are your experiences?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Alfred on Tuesday March 22 2016, @01:28PM
http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/sanjoy/benezet/three.pdf [cam.ac.uk]
If you want to know more about the man and other related works:
http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/sanjoy/benezet/ [cam.ac.uk]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Tuesday March 22 2016, @02:06PM
I read the first link. Interesting, worth the time. Two (or more) problems:
Its cheaty because you can't instruct kids on reading comprehension, problem solving, creativity, debate, and then feign surprise when provided with something mathematical to read about, they remain excellent readers and debaters. I'm sure if provided with something to read about science, they'd likewise be observed to be peculiarly good at science. At least WRT reading and debating and critical thinking topics. Tossing the kids something abstract, a little less concrete than a stick in the mud ratio problem, would likely catch them up pretty badly. Of course most peoples math problems thru their lives are not very abstract at all, so maybe it doesn't matter if they can't do something they don't need to do.
The other problem is it doesn't matter how many grade school teachers read it, its in direct opposition to drill -n- kill traditions and common core principles, and since deviation from micromanaged curricula will merely get them fired rather than changing anything, reading it will accomplish little other than depressing them.
Its probably worth parents reading it, on the principle that school is just a daycare and never let school get in the way of your education, so reading and estimating and critical thinking are worth having parents try to teach it, even if schools have given up on those topics.
Something to think about is I bet the guy got a lot of static in the 30s for not teaching arithmetic because sometimes you really did have to do it, back in the old days. Now of course everyone assumes we'll always have calculators and smartphones and computers so no one should ever learn arithmetic, other than maybe computer science students curious about algorithm improvement. If we ever join the Amish or have a substantial EMP hit, my own kids are totally ready to do long division. Of course they never will in the real world.
The essays do smack a bit of classical education / great books curriculum boosterism. That's how I was educated and I liked it and learned a hell of a lot. I also went to school but all I did was F around in school, at least school never interfered with my real education. I have the opinion that despite my personal good experience and the articles claims to the contrary, great books curriculum / classical education is really not for everyone, in actual practice. Maybe you can brow beat some of it into little kids at a low level, but a life of experience tells me ignorant people want to be ignorant and will not be denied. Possibly thats maybe more a cultural problem than an educational problem. Also today in the 2010s there some weird entryism going on with evangelicals home schooling and the great books or classical education, although I can personally verify that before their entryism there was no required linkage of those curricula with religion or home schoolling or any of that.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by art guerrilla on Tuesday March 22 2016, @11:31PM
"The other problem is it doesn't matter how many grade school teachers read it, its in direct opposition to drill -n- kill traditions and common core principles, and since deviation from micromanaged curricula will merely get them fired rather than changing anything, reading it will accomplish little other than depressing them."
*ouch*
that needs a 'sad-but-all-too-true' moderation...
the sad reality on the frontlines of teaching: the administration WILL throw you overboard whenever there is a wrinkle in the space-time continuum which questions the teach-to-the-test regimen...
SWMBO is between that rock and hard place, and that is ALL the teacher-rats are allowed: run the maze, memorize the maze, no deviations, no wrong turns, no imagination, no fucking teaching, simply rote and regurgitate...
oh, and test, Test, TEST ! ! !
with the results -literally- almost NEVER seen by the teachers until WAY AFTER THE FACT... they have NOTHING to do with 'evaluating/teaching/learning', and EVERYTHING to do with a scam to enrich connected pukes, and an authoritarian means of dumbing down public education, and consequently, the populace...
all we need stupid proles for, is dying in wars, and washing the floors of their betters...
(since we got the computer-based voting fixed, we dont' even need to pwetend their votes are needed...)
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday March 22 2016, @02:27PM
Going on a different tangent, google searches claim no connection between Schmidt's "Life of Fred" kids math textbooks and Benezet, but some themes of both are the same, the whole "literature as a gateway into math" thing and sophistry/debate as a learning tool and both are more fun than drill n kill worksheets. I tried to get my kids into LoF because "everyone loves it" but it never clicked with them. Oh well. So no field reports about LoF.
And going the whole opposite extreme, where I live there's enough H1b and Asians in general to support a Kumon franchise, so my kids did that for a year or so as the only white kids in the room, also without tremendous impact or success. For folks who have no idea what Kumon is, its kind of like a martial arts dojo for drill and kill arithmetic teaching, very popular with Asians, a bit too disciplined, slow moving, and boring for my own kids, but it was probably worth trying. It sounds like an awesome idea but as with many parenting experiences what sounds cool to the parents is not necessarily cool in the opinion of the kids, LOL.
Would have been nice if either approach worked with my kids. Probably both extremes are not useful.
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Tuesday March 22 2016, @07:43PM
In college (late 90s), most of my friends "taught" students at a local Kumon franchise, and their words about it were even harsher than yours, going as far as to say it was a complete fraud. From what I recall, they said parents were led to believe that it was intensive high-quality one-on-one tutoring to teach kids struggling with math special techniques of some kind, when in reality it boiled down to five minutes of basic tutoring followed by endless worksheets until the kid was picked up.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday March 23 2016, @12:05PM
From what I recall, they said parents were led to believe that it was intensive high-quality one-on-one tutoring
Maybe their marketing changed over the last 20 years. We saw what we were told we'd see. Their sales technique pushed two things, the disciplined memorization psuedo martial arts dojo environment, and they had decades of program data to create a secret sauce to guarantee progression if discipline was enforced and effort was made.
Maybe an even shorter summary is they use the gym-personal trainer model. That's great for some folks but not for everyone. In fact probably not for most people.
I didn't see any disconnect between what they told us they'd do vs what they did, but the learning style just didn't work for my kids. They were very nice people and my kids surprised me by missing the teachers although they didn't miss the worksheets...
Its definitely an Asian thing based on experience there and talking to my Japanese coworkers, my observation was both the employees and customers were pretty near 100% first maybe second gen stay at home tiger moms or tiger grannies. There's three colleges in the small suburb I live in so its not like there's a lack of prospects. Maybe they gave up on localization over the last 20 years or it just varies based on local site mgmt and customer demographics, who knows.
I have no idea what to say about tiger moms LARPing as teachers. My SiL is a school teacher with all the degrees and propaganda, and she's probably better overall as a teacher, but I donno if she's 6 yrs of higher ed and licenses and paperwork better than the mom-teachers, and she's been doing this awhile so she's getting expensive. Some kind of middle ground would probably provide maximized education to little kids.