Less = More? Or Does It?
The Washington Post reports that there is an initiative underway to actually teach less math in schools. The concept is being pushed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. While at first this may sound like a weird way to improve math instruction, the idea is narrow the number of concepts taught at each grade level in order to improve mastery of those core subjects.
It says the typical state math curriculum runs a mile wide and an inch deep, resulting in students being introduced to too many concepts but mastering too few, and urges educators to slim down those lessons.
Some scholars say the American approach to math instruction has allowed students to fall behind those in Singapore, Japan and a dozen other nations. In most states, they say, the math curriculum has swelled into a thick catalogue of skills that students are supposed to master to attain "proficiency" under the federal No Child Left Behind mandate.
The report urges teachers to focus on three broad concepts in each grade and on a few key subjects — including the base-10 number system, fractions, decimals, geometry and algebra — that form the core of math education in higher-achieving nations. Some are calling Focal Points the most significant publication in the field since the 1980s.
R. James Milgram, a Stanford University math professor who is among the harshest critics of U.S. math instruction, said the 41-page report aligns teaching "with what is being done with unbelievable success" in other countries. The curriculum would teach a few topics intensely and have students master them and move on rather than teach many topics briefly and repeatedly over several years.
In the fourth grade, for example, Focal Points trims the list to three essential skills: multiplication and division; decimals; and two-dimensional shapes.
Virginia lists 41 "learning expectations" for fourth-grade math students in its statewide Standards of Learning. Maryland lists 67 in its Voluntary State Curriculum. The District has 45 standards.
This actually sounds like a good idea. Frankly, my own experience has been that a lot of repetition is required to really internalize math concepts. I think of it as being a lot like learning a foreign language. One needs to drill the grammar over and over to get it right. The danger here is that with a reduced number of concepts being focused on, will teachers also cut back on class time devoted to math? I think that might be the only pitfall to the approach.
News, The Ivory Tower | Gaius Tuesday, 5 December , 2006
By Granddaddy Long Legs, Tuesday, 5 December , 2006 @ 8:30 am
While we’re at it, can we stop making everyone in college take Calculus? Seriously, mandating that it be part of the core curriculum is nothing more than a forced dragnet to find another Einstein. We don’t force everyone in college to paint on the off chance that we’ll find the next Picasso, do we? There is simply no reason why I, a Marketing major and History minor, needed to learn anti-derivatives and logarithms in order to get a degree.