Maths is an unusual and confused subject in that it is taught, often by non-mathematicians, without reference to its history and meaning.
The result is that mathematics and numeracy are mixed up both in the minds of teachers and pupils. Where something approaching mathematics is taught it is often taught as a technical subject, we teach you a technique, you use it to solve problems. However real maths is not numeracy (numeracy is in fact just a tiny island of the eastern fringes of the mathematical universe!) and real maths is about using your mind creatively, not just churning out answers, especially when you don’t really understand where those answers come from.
Here are two pointers that can seriously help children to grow as mathematical thinkers. Firstly maths has a history. Probably the most important person in that history was Euclid who formed much of the branch of maths called Geometry which is fundamental to mathematical thinking and, not surprisingly, is an extremely unpopular subject when it comes to the school curriculum. Euclid’s work was important in that he worked out how to start with some logical statements (called axioms) and built them up using logic to deduce new things. He can be thought of as a founding father of Mathematical Proof (and guess what - mathematical proof is an increasingly unpopular subject on the curriculum).
If you can apply and train your mind in the kind of thing that Euclid did you can become a great mathematical thinker too. Now not surprisingly there is a massive gap between school/college maths and university maths. It needn’t be that way. As parents you can start to bridge the gap with your children whatever their ages. The way I do that is with very simple mathematical games.
When we sit down for a meal or go on a journey my children ask me, “Please play the questions game!”. Any teacher out there will know just how enthusiastic some pupils can be when it comes to answering questions. So we play a simple game where I ask my children a question in turn and they try to answer and secretly help each other. After a while your kids will want to play this game regularly and will play it with each other in school and in the playground. If you can achieve playground math its pretty cool, because you’re starting to impact positively not only on your own chidren but also on their peers.
Now if you ask just any old question you won’t help much but start to ask questions that build up mathematical thinking and you’ll begin to build mathematicians. On www.mathsmentor.com I’ve placed a large list of questions you can use as a basis for your own questions. Don’t just look at the questions look at WHY I’ve used those questions.
Here are some other pointers for asking questions.
- Ask age appropriate questions.
- Aim to make your child think for a few seconds or even a few minutes.
- Give them time to think.
- Occasionally throw in a stupid question - it breaks up the tension.
- Don’t just use maths questions use general knowledge questions occasionally. Again it breaks up the session nicely and adds to your children’s general knowledge.
- Ask questions that have real world applications to.
- Avoid simple “times” table questions, once your children are confident with tables extend them by throwing in questions from the 13 and 14 times tables, so they have to think about the answer. Try questions like “What is the remainder when 100 is divided by 7?”
- Use questions that require a lot of thinking and imagination, like “How many holes are there on a recorder?”
You can help your children to become the mathematicians of the future. Don’t rely on the school system do to it alone. Teachers swim against the tide in many ways.
Here’s my philosophy:
* Ask good questions.
* Have fun.
* Build great relationships with your children.
* Build great mathematical thinkers.