The Primary Math Project

 



The Primary Math Project envisages 3 books. This is the first book “Understanding Primary Math”, whose chapters form the latter sections. The next chapter is an introduction to this book.

The theme of the next two proposed books are tentatively named as follows.

1.      Knowledge that Teachers Need for Teaching Primary Math Effectively

2.      Conceptwise activities for enabling children to understand them

Richard Skemp, a mathematician-turned-psychologist, identified two different levels at which the Primary Math curriculum can be transacted. The first level (Instrumental Level) is that of “doing” math which focusses on algorithms and procedures. The second level (Relational Level) would explain the logic of &amp; the inter-relations between the various procedures. We will explain these levels in detail in the next chapter.

In most schools, all over the world, math is taught mostly at the instrumental level. The current book, Understanding Primary Math, explains the math curriculum at the second (Relational) level.

But a teacher who wants to make math learning interesting, easy and relevant, needs to also understand math at a third level. These aspects would be covered in Book 2 – Knowledge That Teachers need for Teaching Primary Math Effectively. Some of the aspects to be understood are given below.

1.      Understanding the nature of math, the objective of learning math, seeing math as a human endeavor and the beauty of math

2.      Understanding the learning psychology &amp; developmental level of the child in primary school so that the abstract ideas can be presented to students in a manner they can understand.

<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='margin-left:18.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt'>3.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>      Teaching methods &amp; classroom processes which would enable students to learn the various aspects of math – concepts, skills &amp; information.

<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpLast style='margin-left:18.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt'>4.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>      Setting Up a Math Activity Centre &amp; integrating it with classroom pedagogy

<p class=MsoNormal>The third book, Book 3, “Conceptwise activities for enabling children to understand them” would provide teachers a list of the concepts in primary math and activities to enable understanding of each of these concepts &amp; procedures. Among others, it would consist of the following.

<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst style='margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:10.0pt;margin-left:18.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:115%'><span lang=EN-IN>1. Topic wise list of concepts

<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:10.0pt;margin-left:18.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:115%'><span lang=EN-IN>2. Associated snippets from history of mathematics

<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:10.0pt;margin-left:18.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:115%'><span lang=EN-IN>3. Topic wise list of skills

<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:10.0pt;margin-left:18.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:115%'><span lang=EN-IN>4. Activities for understanding above concepts

<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:10.0pt;margin-left:18.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:115%'><span lang=EN-IN>5. Activities for “remembering” math vocabulary &amp; information

<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:10.0pt;margin-left:18.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:115%'><span lang=EN-IN>6. Happy Drills for mastering skills &amp; procedures

<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpLast style='margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:10.0pt;margin-left:18.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:115%'><span lang=EN-IN>7. Math Lab materials for above activities

<p class=MsoNormal>The three books of the Primary Math Project should enable a teacher to enjoy math, convey her enjoyment of math to her students and present the material in a variety of ways suited to the needs of the students. It will enable her to become an effective teacher of math.

<p class=MsoNormal>Many educational administrators and principals are not aware of the complexities of teaching &amp; learning primary math. They are of the opinion that up to Primary classes one teacher can teach all the subjects. But this is not true. Math has many sophisticated concepts that need special training for understanding&amp; teaching. I hope these articles will establish this.

<p class=MsoNormal>Another project which is in the “dream stage” is producing videos to illustrate all concepts &amp; procedures in primary math. There are many videos available in the Net for teaching math. But most of them are in the “doing level” and not at the “understanding level”. The videos of the Primary Math Project should be provide an effective platform for teacher training.