It’s no secret that our nation’s youth are not keeping up in math with students from other developed nations. The problem starts in elementary school. Elementary school math lays the foundation for more advanced math topics. If kids go into secondary school with learning gaps in math, they will really struggle in advanced math topics. Politicians on both sides of the aisle, industry leaders, and secondary math teachers all say math instruction for elementary age students must improve. The issue is very complex but this article attempts to explain some of the main problems.
Elementary Classroom Teachers Have Enormous Responsibilities
Effective teachers have extensive knowledge in two areas:
1. The subject matter they teach
2. Pedagogy, or how to teach the subject matter
In elementary school the typical classroom teacher is responsible for teaching students reading, writing, math, science, and social studies. The teacher’s knowledge of each subject matter must extend way beyond what they expect the students to learn. But subject matter knowledge is useless if the teacher doesn’t know how to teach their students. Pedagogy includes topics such as understanding the foundational concepts of each subject and how to build on those foundational concepts, child development, how to motivate children, and learning theory. That’s only enough knowledge for teachers to be effective with one student. Most classrooms have 25 or more children. So teachers must also help kids navigate peer relationships and honor multicultural differences. It helps if teachers can soothe a crying child and have a high tolerance for bodily fluids. Oh, and they should love children. At Mathnasium of Littleton we are in awe of the elementary classroom teacher, in fact, our Center Director, Suzie Shride, was one.
So How Do Pre-Service Teachers Learn to be Effective?
96% of public school teachers hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. To earn a teaching credential pre-service, teachers take courses in both pedagogy and in subject matter. Do teacher certification programs in the U.S. give pre-service teachers enough training in math?
Preparing an Elementary School Teacher for Teaching Math
Let’s start with some facts about elementary school teacher preparation.
Are Teacher Colleges to Blame?
Not entirely. According to The Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M), pre-service teachers in the U.S. take about the same amount of math as the higher performing nations, like Taiwan. The difference between teachers in places like Taiwan and the U.S. actually is the level of mathematical competence when teachers enter the teacher training program. In other words, our elementary school teachers never got great math instruction themselves. So we have a cycle of poor math instruction leading to poor math skills.
To make matters even more complex, faulty belief systems about mathematical abilities plagues our society. One such belief is that people are either born with a mind for numbers, or not. The truth is that a mind for numbers can be taught. These faulty belief systems have held back women and minorities for generations. These beliefs get passed on to the next generation. The good news is that the educational community is working to improve both math instruction and disabling beliefs.
Breaking the Cycle of Poor Math Instruction
There is a long history of reforms and initiatives aimed at improving mathematics instruction. Common Core Math Standards is one of them. Not even the experts agree about how to improve math instruction.
Math Wars: The Conflict Between Mathematicians and Education Professors
Math wars refers to disagreements between mathematicians and educators about the best way to teach math. Mathematicians have a deep understanding of math, but they don’t often pay attention to the latest developments in child development and pedagogy. Education professors have a thorough understanding of pedagogy but often lack a deep understanding of math (and possibly other subject matters). As stated in the beginning, effective teachers must know both pedagogy and the subject. So since the mathematicians and the education professors can’t decide how best to teach math, school teachers are stuck in the middle.
Even when the experts do agree it takes a long time to implement any reform. The list of organizations and institutions that have to work towards the effort to implement reform includes textbook publishers, teacher colleges, state education departments, local school districts, and finally the educator themself. Even though Colorado adopted Common Core Math in 2010, many districts didn’t begin utilizing it until 2014. Since the current classroom teachers did not get math instruction in a similar way to the way they are now expected to teach it, it fell to the local districts to educate the teachers. Imagine the enormous task Jefferson County or Douglas County faced trying to train thousands of teachers. The fact that this change occurred during political upheaval for the districts did not help.
Ack! What a Mess! What’s the Solution?
Many solutions are being studied by a variety of task forces. None of the solutions will be simple or easy. Some of the proposed ideas, such as increasing salaries for teachers to attract more talent, are politically charged as well.
How Can a Parent Ensure their Kids Get Great Math Instruction?
Bring your child to Mathnasium of Littleton for supplemental math instruction. Our instructors have proven math competence and they use our specialized pedagogical system and curriculum. With our individual instruction model we don’t have to worry about peer relationships. Our only job is to make math make sense and we do it well. That’s why we were voted #1 by Colorado Parent Magazine.
This article was written by and owned by Cuttlefish Copywriting. It is copyright protected. Parker Mathnasium has permission to use it. Other Mathnasium locations should contact Heather at [email protected] before using it.
