Thanks to all the parents who came to Erma Anderson’s math parent training yesterday. There were many highlights and take-aways from her presentation including 3 common preconceptions about math.
Preconception #1: Math is about Learning to compute. Literature states that math is a way of thinking about, understanding, explaining, and expressing phenomena. It’s about inquiry and insight. Composing and decomposing numbers is key.
Preconception #2: Math is about following rules. Making sense of a problem is critical. Children must use concrete manipulatives to do this. We need to help children create pictures in their mind of concepts being taught. Math is very developmental. The math we learn builds on what we have previously done.
Preconception #3: Some people have the ability to do math and others don’t.
The literature is very clear – this is not true! Too many children lose their self-esteem in math at a very early age. We believe it is desirable for students to struggle for a while with problems. As parents, we should never say things like, “I was never good at math” or “Our family just doesn’t have the math gene.” At the end of the presentation we discussed opportunities for continuing our own learning about math and how we can best support our children. There will be other opportunities to learn about math at ISB this year. In the meantime, some online resources we highly recommend:
YouCubed (a site with articles and activities to build conceptual understanding)
How To Learn Math (a free online open course through Stanford University)
