Slimmer Textbooks; Fatter Minds

Slimmer Textbooks, Fatter Minds

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-03-13-math-panel_n.htm

Why do the math skills of American students pale in comparison to those of other cultures, such as China? Let’s look at their textbooks. American math books are thick, running to about almost 1,000 pages, while China’s 150 paged books are significantly thinner. Is there a connection?

Recent research has revealed that a problem with how Americans teach math is that they’re “trying to do everything everywhere.” Students feel that they learned the same material in third grade as they did fifth grade, and never get the sense that they accomplished or mastered any specific skill. They’re only “so-so” on everything. Each year new students are struggling to learn 20-something new concepts! Teacher’s complain that American students have never fully mastered working with fractions, and this more focused, streamline technique will help them. This research suggested that curriculums need to slim down and focus on teaching students specific topics each year.

For example: third graders would be taught only how to add and subtract. Fourth graders begin to use fractions and decimals, comparing them on a number line. Fifth graders begin to learn how to multiply and divide, and so begin learning about geometry. (the area of a triangle or square, for example) In sixth grade students learn how to multiply and divide fractions and decimals, along with positive and negative numbers.

I think it’s a brilliant idea! I consider math to be somewhat like reading. You must first learn the alphabet, then simple words, then sentences, then verbs and what not. You cannot briefly teach a little bit of everything and hope that the child grasps it all by a certain age and then is able to read a ancient adult novel! Well it’s the same with math. I know that when I take a math course, I still struggle with fractions. I find it difficult in Calculus to apply EVERYTHING I’ve learned in all of my previous years of math. I feel like I’m jumping all over the place. I think it’s important to have a more focused way of learning. That way I won’t feel scatterbrained.

I’ve always wondered what made Chinese math students so much smarter than Americans. I always believed that the main reason our scores were so much lower was because of the “no child left behind act”. But this new research makes me question if there’s more to it than that. Are we just learning incorrectly?

Another thing I wonder is that now we have access to this newly developed knowledge; will we put it to use? Will I see children with smaller textbooks? Or will American schools just ignore this different approach to teaching math?

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