Making Our Children ‘Love’ Math As a Subject

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Akua 12 years ago

Thanks for that! As a child I really hated maths. I now understand that if I had had help with maths it wouldn't have been so bad.

I agree as parents we must help our children to love maths. Maths is not so bad after all.

Thanks for that! As a child I really hated maths. I now understand that if I had had help with maths it wouldn't have been so bad.

I agree as parents we must help our children to love maths. Maths is not so bad after all.
Tekonline.org 12 years ago

(Culled from the Wall Street Journal)

"Ongoing research is shedding new light on the importance of math to children's success. Math skill at kindergarten entry is an even stronger predictor of later school achievement than ...
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(Culled from the Wall Street Journal)

"Ongoing research is shedding new light on the importance of math to children's success. Math skill at kindergarten entry is an even stronger predictor of later school achievement than reading skills or the ability to pay attention, according to a 2007 study in the journal Developmental Psychology.

The issue is drawing increasing attention as U.S. teens continue to trail their global peers in math, performing below average compared with students in 33 other industrialized nations, based on the most recent results of the Program for International Student Assessment in 2010.

Parents play a pivotal role in kids' math attitudes and skills, starting in toddlerhood. Those who talk often to their youngsters about numbers, and explain spatial relationships in gestures and words, tend to instill better math skills at age 4, according to a long-term, in-home study of 44 preschoolers and their parents led by Susan C. Levine, a professor of psychology and comparative human development at the University of Chicago.
Yet many parents unconsciously teach children to fear math. A parent who reacts to a child's math questions or homework by saying, "I have never been good in math," or, "I haven't done math in 20 years," conveys to kids that math is daunting and they probably can't do it either, says Bon Crowder, a Houston-based teacher, tutor and publisher of MathFour.com, a website on math-teaching strategies.

It is possible for a math-phobic parent to raise a quant, but parents need to change their behavior, researchers and educators say. This means halting negative talk, mixing math games and questions into daily life just as they do reading and spelling, and encouraging kids to dive into tough math problems and not be afraid to struggle.

Encouraging children's instinctive curiosity is a good place to start. Adam Riess, who won the 2011 Nobel Prize in physics, peppered his parents with questions about math as a child, and they treated his curiosity as natural. On car trips with his family at age 8, "instead of asking the proverbial, 'Are we there yet?' I'd look at mile markers and the speedometer and figure out how much time we needed to get there," says Dr. Riess, a professor of astronomy and physics at Johns Hopkins University. "Math seemed powerful to me."

Parents don't have to know math to help kids get off to a good start. Teaching youngsters to make connections between numbers and sets of objects—think showing a child three Cheerios when teaching the number three—helps children understand what numbers mean better than reciting strings of numbers by memory, Dr. Levine says. Doing puzzles together or using gestures to help describe spatial relationships such as "taller" and "shorter," can instill spatial abilities, which are linked to better math skills, she says.

Something as simple as playing with blocks side-by-side and encouraging a child to replicate your stacks and structures can teach spatial skills, says Kelly Mix, a professor of educational psychology at Michigan State University.

Although Fiona Cameron struggled with math in school, she is trying to teach her children Iain, 5, and Mhairi, 3, to enjoy it. Snuggling with them at bedtime, she encourages them to spot patterns in picture books, such as the "stripe-stripe-dot" on an eel, says Ms. Cameron, a Pasadena, Calif., financial adviser. She also poses daily problems from Bedtime Math, a nonprofit website launched last February to help parents integrate math into their children's lives.

The site posts a playful math question each day related to daily life and current events, such as the Olympics, and pushes "kids to wrestle with it in their heads, while talking with their parents about how to do it," says founder Laura Bilodeau Overdeck of Summit, NJ, a former high-tech strategy consultant.

Baking in the kitchen, Ms. Cameron explains fractions while having each of her children crack half the eggs. Filling muffin cups becomes a subtraction problem: "If we fill eight muffin cups and there are 12 in all, how many more do we have to fill?" Thanks to this "stealth math" approach, her kids are having fun solving problems, she says.

When kids start bringing math homework home, many parents have to break old habits of emphasizing good scores and grades, and praise them instead for trying hard and using multiple approaches to figure out problems. In Dr. Levine's study, 9-year-old children were more eager to tackle new math challenges if their parents focused on the process of problem-solving, rather than correct answers.

Struggling alongside your child can actually be helpful, says Suzanne Sutton, a Rockville, Md., math consultant and founder of NewtonsWindow.com, a website to help parents and students with math. A parent who is comfortable with trying and failing can teach a child how to look up things and grapple with challenges.

If you haven't a clue how to help, Ms. Crowder says, avoid voicing your anxiety or frustration. Instead, tell your child your time together would better be spent in other ways, and offer to get a tutor or another person to help.

Another option: Hire your child to tutor you in math. A parent asked Ms. Sutton years ago how to help her teenage son tackle a tough algebra course when she couldn't even understand the syllabus. Ms. Sutton told her to pick the toughest topic and offer to pay her son for writing a report on it and teaching it to her. The mother picked logarithms.

When her son gave her only a superficial explanation, Ms. Sutton says, the mother told him, "You didn't meet the terms of our agreement. I don't understand what it means." The teen dug deeper and tried again, and finally got the concept across to his mom, Ms. Sutton says.

Secure knowing that he had already mastered one of the toughest topics in the course, the teen went on to do well in the class."
WALT 12 years ago

JOE,PLS GIVE ME UR EMAIL ADDRESS.
I HAVE SOME INFO FOR YOU.
YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN OUR MATHS PROJECT.

JOE,PLS GIVE ME UR EMAIL ADDRESS.
I HAVE SOME INFO FOR YOU.
YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN OUR MATHS PROJECT.
Joe Kingsley Eyiah 12 years ago

Thank you. I am highly interested. My e-mail address is: jeyiah@hotmail.com

Thank you. I am highly interested. My e-mail address is: jeyiah@hotmail.com
WALT 12 years ago

Check ur email this PM. Some stuff 4 U in your inbox.
We are working on how to demo to GH SHS students how Maths can be applied in real life and also make it is easier to learn Maths and fun for all.

Check ur email this PM. Some stuff 4 U in your inbox.
We are working on how to demo to GH SHS students how Maths can be applied in real life and also make it is easier to learn Maths and fun for all.
WALT 12 years ago

As a way of addressing the issues raised in your wonderful article and giving something back to Ghana,we have kicked off an project in Ghana. Details in your email inbox please.

As a way of addressing the issues raised in your wonderful article and giving something back to Ghana,we have kicked off an project in Ghana. Details in your email inbox please.
WALT 12 years ago

Email sent.Pls check ur inbox or Spam

Email sent.Pls check ur inbox or Spam
GHFUO, be serious & change ur MENtali 12 years ago

THE HYBRID TIGER
Secrets of the Extraordinary Success of Asian-American Kids
By Quanyu Huang
American parents overindulge their children, allowing them sleepovers, video games and laughable extracurricular activities like ...
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THE HYBRID TIGER
Secrets of the Extraordinary Success of Asian-American Kids
By Quanyu Huang
American parents overindulge their children, allowing them sleepovers, video games and laughable extracurricular activities like playing Villager Number Six in the school play,
as they collect trophies for being themselves in a self-esteem-centered culture. By contrast, Chinese parents strictly limit television, video games and socializing,
accept no grades but A’s and insist on several hours a day of violin and piano practice, regardless of their children’s complaints.
As a result, Chinese-parented kids play Carnegie Hall at 14, get perfect scores in science and math, and gain early admission to Harvard while their floundering
American counterparts wonder what on earth hit them.
10.THE TRIPLE PACKAGE
How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America
By Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld
The title refers to psychological characteristics shared by all of America’s overachieving subgroups:
a group superiority complex, insecurity about one’s personal worth or status, and impulse control,
i.e., the ability to resist temptation, particularly the temptation to surrender when the going gets tough.
Tekonline.org 12 years ago

Playing with blocks may help children's spatial, math thinking

September 24, 2013
Source:
Society for Research in Child Development

Playing with blocks may help preschoolers develop the kinds of skills that support la ...
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Playing with blocks may help children's spatial, math thinking

September 24, 2013
Source:
Society for Research in Child Development

Playing with blocks may help preschoolers develop the kinds of skills that support later learning in science, technology, engineering, and math.
Credit: © oksun70 / Fotolia

Playing with blocks may help preschoolers develop the kinds of skills that support later learning in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), according to a new study by researchers at the University of Delaware and Temple University. And for low-income preschoolers, who lag in spatial skills, such play may be especially important.
The study is published in the journal Child Development.

More than a hundred 3-year-olds of various socioeconomic levels took part in the study. Children who were better at copying block structures were also better at early math, the study found. Among the skills tested were whether children could figure out that a block belongs above or below another block and whether they aligned the pieces.
The study also found that by age 3, children from lower-income families were already falling behind in spatial skills, likely as a result of more limited experience with blocks and other toys and materials that facilitate the development of such skills. And parents of low-income toddlers reported using significantly fewer words such as "above" and "below" with their children.
Blocks are affordable and enjoyable, and they're easily used in preschool settings. Giving children -- especially those from low-income families -- such toys to play with can help them develop skills that will have long-lasting effects on later STEM-related educational outcomes, the researchers suggest.

The children's spatial skills were assessed using a block-building task. Math skills were examined using a measure developed for 3-year-olds that focuses on a wide range of skills, from simple counting to complex operations like adding and subtracting.
"Research in the science of learning has shown that experiences like block building and puzzle play can improve children's spatial skills and that these skills support complex mathematical problem solving in middle and high school," explains Brian N. Verdine, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Delaware and one of the study's authors. "This is the first research to demonstrate a similar relationship in preschoolers."

Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Society for Research in Child Development.
GHFUO, be serious & change ur MENtali 12 years ago

EVEN CREATIVITY COULDNT HVE HAPPENED WITHOUT MATHS

EVEN CREATIVITY COULDNT HVE HAPPENED WITHOUT MATHS

yanks 12 years ago

is simply a universal language and it is important that more people should learn know the basics of the subject. but we must be careful that nobody would came and scam the country with a bogus software. in fact, youtube is a ...
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is simply a universal language and it is important that more people should learn know the basics of the subject. but we must be careful that nobody would came and scam the country with a bogus software. in fact, youtube is a great resources for learning math at all levels. if you youtube the topic you don't understand, there are tons of tutors ready to explain it professionally for free. khan academy is a very good source for learning all kinds of science and math. they only ask you to contribute something to help them.
Kojo Billy Duncan 12 years ago

I encourage young people to take up maths, for example, I have installed the Khan Academy software in my local community library. It is rewarding to see the youth patronizing the facility. Hopefully, we will be grooming the n ...
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I encourage young people to take up maths, for example, I have installed the Khan Academy software in my local community library. It is rewarding to see the youth patronizing the facility. Hopefully, we will be grooming the next crop of mathematicians.
WALT 12 years ago

GIVE ME YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS

GIVE ME YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
Aaron 12 years ago

These are the type of articles we need to be seeing often in Ghanaweb and other media, not always NPP-NDC issues!!
Kudos!

These are the type of articles we need to be seeing often in Ghanaweb and other media, not always NPP-NDC issues!!
Kudos!
Bono 12 years ago

Pls don't remind me of this evil+that evil=2evils

Pls don't remind me of this evil+that evil=2evils
OGIDIGIDI 12 years ago

Which evil are you talking about?

Which evil are you talking about?
Tekonline.org 12 years ago

(from ScienceDaily)

To teach kids math, researcher devises ‘brain games’

Source: University at Buffalo

Summary:
The world often breaks down into numbers and regular patterns that form predictable cycles. And the ...
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(from ScienceDaily)

To teach kids math, researcher devises ‘brain games’

Source: University at Buffalo

Summary:
The world often breaks down into numbers and regular patterns that form predictable cycles. And the sooner children can inherently grasp these patterns, the more confident and comfortable they will be with the world of math. That’s the discerning approach of experts who have spent decades teaching teachers and watching how students learn.

The world often breaks down into numbers and regular patterns that form predictable cycles. And the sooner children can inherently grasp these patterns, the more confident and comfortable they will be with the world of math.That's the discerning approach of University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education professor Ming Ming Chiu, and it's based on decades of teaching teachers and watching how students learn. Known for helping parents find teachable math moments, especially at the dinner table and on living room sofa, Ming has devised new ways to make kids comfortable with the ways of math.
Ming demonstrates his easy-to-follow and fun "Brain Games" for parents and children in this video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBI6_dUFgOo.
His games are designed to help young, pre-kindergarten children understand concepts that give mathematical order to the chaos around them.
"Children with stronger math skills can recognize more patterns in the world's rapid creation of new information, which grew by a factor of nine during 2006-11," explains Ming. "By understanding these patterns, children will not only better compete for the best jobs as adults, but they also will be better equipped to help solve such major problems as global warming and energy crises.
"The U.S. may be the richest country in the world, but the scores of 15-year-olds on international mathematics tests are below average, behind 30 countries," he adds.
Ming's Brain Games are simple but effective educational exercises that parents can do with their children at home.
These games, some of which he demonstrates in the video, include:
• More? You Want More? This simple game provides an introduction to numbers, using things kids really like, such as "blueberries. ("Here are two plates of blueberries, which one do you think has more?")
• Be Fair and Share, Part I. This game helps kids learn addition and subtraction. ("We have two plates of blueberries. How do we share them so each person has the same number of blueberries?")
• Be Fair and Share, Part II. This game teaches the basics of multiplication and division. ("Three friends are coming. Let's share the blueberries so each friend has the same number of blueberries.")
• Junk Mail Isn't Just Junk. This exercise helps kids understand statistics by measuring (or counting) how much junk mail arrives each day at home, and then using this measurement to predict how much mail will arrive the next day. Children are asked to assess the accuracy of their predictions. ("Was our guess close?" "Why do you think we received less junk mail than yesterday?")
Ming encourages parents, teachers, caretakers, friends -- and anyone else who wants to help young people learn math -- to devise their own fun Brain Games. He has only four simple rules for doing so:
1. Use things around the house that kids like. Berries. Popcorn. Chocolate
2. Start easy
3. Write down every step in the game
4. Keep it light and fun
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by University at Buffalo.
Jones 12 years ago

It is really important to get children to learn maths from an early age. We need to send more of our kids into maths and science than Literature or African Areas studies or such subjects.

But the author doesn't really offe ...
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It is really important to get children to learn maths from an early age. We need to send more of our kids into maths and science than Literature or African Areas studies or such subjects.

But the author doesn't really offer very concrete suggestions as to how parents, who are themselves poor in maths, can really get their children at home to develop the love for maths or to dispel their hatred for it.
WALT 12 years ago

YOU WILL SEE SOLUTIONS PRETTY SOON.
GIVE ME YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS AND I WILL SEND YOU DETAILS.

YOU WILL SEE SOLUTIONS PRETTY SOON.
GIVE ME YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS AND I WILL SEND YOU DETAILS.
Tekonline.org 12 years ago

Hi Jones, indeed, you have touched on the crux of the matter: the lack of math-capable parenthood. And this might be what differentiates us from the Malaysians, South Koreans, and those from the other "Asian Tiger" nations.
...
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Hi Jones, indeed, you have touched on the crux of the matter: the lack of math-capable parenthood. And this might be what differentiates us from the Malaysians, South Koreans, and those from the other "Asian Tiger" nations.

Often, we think it is just because of our seemingly-defective educational system (this is also a factor since the Asian Tigers have elementary school teachers with predominantly college degrees), but the real problem is the HOME. The first five years of a child's educational development is extremely important, and parents MUST be effective educators. This is our major disadvantage.

WHAT CAN BE DONE
1. Parents would have to rely more on hired tutors even in the preschool phase.
2. Parents could focus more on educational toys, such as bricks and other objects that help cognitive development.
3. As much as possible parents should consider accumulating as many preschool books and educational software (they must invest in acquiring a computer), and learning DVD videos for the very young.

The above might not be enough, so for the long term planning, our educators should have a strategic plan for educating the masses; literacy and basic education should be made widespread through various means, including the mass media.

OGIDIGIDI 12 years ago

Great article oo, Barima Eyiah! Well done! You deserve a big AWARD for your wonderful and helpful contributions. Allah bless you ooooo!

Great article oo, Barima Eyiah! Well done! You deserve a big AWARD for your wonderful and helpful contributions. Allah bless you ooooo!
Tekonline.org 12 years ago

Apart from promoting the understanding the relationship between numerals and quantities at a very young age, recent research also points to the importance of SPATIAL REASONING in the development of math proficiency:

"Spati ...
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Apart from promoting the understanding the relationship between numerals and quantities at a very young age, recent research also points to the importance of SPATIAL REASONING in the development of math proficiency:

"Spatial training boosts math skills"
Date:
June 25, 2013
Source:
Michigan State University

Example of a mental rotation problem from an MSU College of Education study that showed spatial training such as mental rotation can improve math ability.
Credit: Image courtesy of Michigan State University
Training young children in spatial reasoning can improve their math performance, according to a groundbreaking study from Michigan State University education scholars.
The researchers trained 6- to 8-year-olds in mental rotation, a spatial ability, and found their scores on addition and subtraction problems improved significantly. The mental rotation training involved imagining how two halves of an object would come together to make a whole, when the halves have been turned at an angle.
Past research has found a link between spatial reasoning and math, but the MSU study is the first to provide direct evidence of a causal connection -- that when children are trained in one ability, improvement is seen in the other. The findings will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Cognition and Development.
Kelly Mix, professor of educational psychology, said the findings suggest spatial training "primes" the brain to better tackle calculation problems. Mix authored the study with Yi-Ling Cheng, a doctoral student in MSU's College of Education.
"What's shocking is that we saw these improvements in math performance after giving the students just one 20-minute training session in spatial ability," Mix said. "Imagine if the training had been six weeks."
Understanding the connection between spatial ability and math, she said, is especially important in the early elementary grades because many studies indicate early intervention is critical for closing achievement gaps in math.
Spatial ability is important for success in many fields, from architecture to engineering to meteorology, according to a Johns Hopkins University paper. An astronomer must visualize the structure of the solar system and the motions of the objects in it, for example, while a radiologist must be able to interpret the image on an X-ray.
Some education experts have called for including spatial reasoning in the elementary math curriculum. But there are many forms of spatial ability and Mix said it's important to first figure out how each of them may or may not relate to the various math disciplines.
To that end, Mix is leading a larger study that tests elementary students on different forms of spatial ability and math performance.
Mix's research into spatial ability and math is funded by two grants totaling $2.8 million from the Institute of Education Sciences, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education.
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Michigan State University.

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Making Our Children ‘Love’ Math As a Subject

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