Cath Pearn, Australian Council for Educational Research
For years you may have been adding and subtracting numbers in your head in a certain way, but these strategies were never formally taught at school. Now they are, and they all have names.
Math instruction is stuck in the last century. How can we change teaching methods to move past rote memorization and help students develop a more meaningful understanding – and be better at math?
Good quality education fuels an economy. South Africa needs to increase its supply of science and technology university graduates. But instead it’s lowering the bar, especially when it comes to maths.
Both have been much maligned by parents who felt like they couldn’t help their kids with basic math homework. But the Common Core could help with conceptual understanding and math intuition.
Smartphones double as calculators and are attached to our hip 24/7. Does the ubiquitous access to calculators affect our ability to do maths in our heads like we used to?