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Articles on Maths education

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Why do Asian children perform so well at maths? www.shutterstock.com

What is the secret to being good at maths?

Memorising facts and completing drills is likely to improve your maths skills – just so long as you find a way to stay motivated.
Teachers can learn a great deal from their pupils’ mistakes in maths. From www.shutterstock.com

When there’s meaning in mathematical mistakes

What if instead of dismissing wrong answers as a sign of failure, maths teachers tried to understand how their pupils came to that answer and then guided them in the right direction?
Children struggle to develop the basic “building blocks” of maths if they’re just copying down everything the teacher tells them without understanding it. From www.shutterstock.com

After school learning makes kids masters of their own maths destiny

When rote learning and parroted answers replace real engagement with the material, children are bound to battle with maths. After-school homework clubs offer a different way of thinking.
It’s hard for kids to remember a string of arbitrary numbers. from www.shutterstock.com.au

Here’s how to get kids to remember times tables

Lots of kids have trouble remembering their times tables. Learning them by rote can mean a child knows the numbers but not what they mean.
Teachers have been found to mark boys higher than girls in maths, affecting their self-confidence with the subject. Shutterstock

Teachers’ gender bias in maths affects girls later

New research has found some teachers mark boys’ primary school maths tests more favourably than girls.
In lots of simple ways parents can help their kids understand and enjoy maths. Shutterstock

How parents can help their kids understand, and enjoy, maths

Teaching maths concepts has long been considered the domain of the classroom teacher, with many parents often feeling unable to help their kids develop this skill. However, parents already do many things…
China’s maths stars. How Hwee Young/EPA

How China teaches children maths so well

There has been much publicity in recent years about China and its teachers. After the most recent results from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) were published in 2013, considerable…
Could you do without? Calculator via Shutterstock

In the classrooms of Singapore, calculators are not crutches

The upcoming ban on the use of calculators in most maths exams for 11-year-olds in UK schools reminds me of a persistent concern in education: when do the tools we use to learn become crutches we can’t…
Mastered numbers? Let’s make it harder. Arenamontanus

Explainer: what is the mastery model of teaching maths?

Ever-envious of Singapore’s much-heralded success in teaching maths, politicians are keen to see its methodology arriving in UK classrooms. Education minister Elizabeth Truss explained some of the background…
Question 1: Where is the leaning tower of Pisa? Niall Carson/PA Archive

PISA education rankings are a problem that can’t be solved

With a heavy feeling of déjà vu, here we are again with another round of introspection on the OECD’s international Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) rankings and the mediocre education…
Can I be a puzzle-maker when I grow up? Child with puzzle via Shutterstock

Why 21st century children need to excel at problem solving

It’s no longer enough for children just to be able to read, count or multiply. With computers now doing many mundane repetitive tasks for us, many jobs in today’s world require analytical skills and the…
Let’s do the 23 times table. Michael Reynolds/EPA

Explainer: what makes Chinese maths lessons so good?

Chinese students begin learning their maths facts at a very early age: maths textbooks begin with multiplication in the first semester of second grade, when children are seven years old. In order to understand…
The problem mightn’t be with the equations, but the language in the questions. www.shutterstock.com.au

Are our kids failing in maths because they can’t read?

There has been a lot of hand-wringing about mathematics lately. According to national and international testing we are not getting any better at it and plenty of good reasons have been offered for why…

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