Can we improve the methods we use to teach math in schools — so that everyone develops proficiency?

            Children come into school with differences in background knowledge, confidence, ability to stay on task and, in the case of math, quickness. Children who struggle in math usually have difficulty remembering math facts, handling word problems and doing multi-step arithmetic. Despite the added support for “problem-based” or “discovery-based” learning, it seems that current teaching approaches underestimate the amount of explicit guidance.

            Take the example of positive and negative integers, which confuse many kids. Given a seemingly straightforward question like, “What is -7 + 5?”, many will end up guessing. One way to break it down, would be to say: “Imagine you’re playing a game for money and you lost sevenpesos  and gained five. Don’t give me a number. Just tell me: Is that a good day or a bad day?” Teaching this way, there’s a guarantee that every student would experience success. In turn, the children’s math anxiety diminished. As they grew more confident, they grew excited, and they began requesting harder challenges.More than anything, kids love success,and they love getting to higher levels, like in a video game.

            Sometimes adding one more drop of knowledge led to a leap in understanding. One day, a child would be struggling; the next day she would solve a problem that was harder than anything she’d previously handled. And this approach is called  “guided discovery”. When math is taught this way, surprising things happen.

By: Edilina P. Enriquez | T-III | Calungusan Elementary school