Full Description
The teaching of arithmetic in the primary school has traditionally been dominated by a focus on standard algorithms and this approach is now being questioned. Curriculum changes are taking place that promote the development of mental strategies, and provide more opportunities for children to develop their own ways of working. This book shows contrasting influences for change as leading mathematics educators from the USA, the UK and the Netherlands identify the way research is used to develop different classroom practices. In England, changes are taking place through a National Numeracy Strategy which is set to raise standards in every primary classroom while in the Netherlands, Realistic Mathematics Education introduces innovative approaches such as use of an 'empty number line' to support the teaching of mental strategies. This book explores why we teach in different ways, challenges orthodoxy, and sets the agenda for learning from each other.
Contents
Part one: Setting the agenda for arithmetic teaching and learning
Contrasting approaches that challenge tradition
Perspectives on arithmetic from classroom-based research in the United States
Part two: The principles underpinning the arithmetic curriculum
Influences on the teaching of number in England
Realistic mathematics education in the Netherlands
Part three: Classroom practices in arithmetic teaching
Issues for classroom practices in England
Intuitive approaches, mental strategies and standard algorithms
Jumping ahead
an innovative teaching programme
Progressive mathematization
sketch of a learning strand
Different approaches to mastering mental calculation strategies
Part four: Developmental research
What does it mean to learn? What is effective teaching?
Fostering a dialectic relation between theory and practice
Part five: Towards a new numeracy
The English experience of a 'calculator-aware' number curriculum
References
Index.
