A minimum of one hour of math per day required in Ontario classrooms was announced early this week. As the Ontario education minister announced the slip in EQAO math scores and the upcoming $60 millions to be spent on fixing this issue, many parents are likely saying “About time!” The funding will go towards increased professional development for teachers and having three lead math specializing teachers in each elementary school.
Sounds like a good start to fixing a long overdue problem of this math sinkhole that has already sucked in not only elementary students, but also the current college students. It’s not news that the low performance in math has transpired. Many colleges and universities respond actively by providing bridging math courses, free math tutoring services, and math-learning strategies services.
Yes, indeed, data from other jurisdictions show that having 4 to 6 hours of math per week in elementary schools relate to higher math performance. This makes me cringe even more to think about how many hours Ontario elementary teachers are spending on math instruction prior to this one-hour-per-day minimum requirement.
One hour per day sounds good, but let’s not forget about quality over quantity.
What will teachers do in this hour everyday to make it count?
From my elementary extracurricular math programs to my college math classrooms, I use hands-on ways to teach math as well. I use technology to model and show concepts. With younger kids, I use ten frames to show ways to add up to ten. I use beads to develop the concept of multiplying, equal sharing, and dividing. I use shapes to show fractions.
But this can’t be the only method of math instruction in the classroom. Teachers need to use these hands-on method to allow concept formation, ask students to observe for patterns, ask students to generate mathematical rules to apply concepts to larger problems. Students need to learn to solve more complex problems by applying math rules.
Take equivalent fractions for example:
It’s great to include shapes, toys, manipulatives, and interactive white boards for students to observe that one-half is equal to 3-thirds.
It is just as important to include in the next step of the lesson the pattern of multiplying the numerator and denominator by the same number to obtain an equivalent fraction.
There is a great divide between parents who say, “when we were in school, we were drilled to memorize the multiplication table” and teachers who aim to allow greater understanding by using hands-on methods. So why not both? Another way to start should also be to limit the use of calculators within the one-hour.
What we need is to bring back balance. The balance between reinforcing basic number facts through repetition and hands-on methods to allow concept formation.
Whether or not an hour per day is enough…we shall wait for more data to be collected. But let’s not forget that the key is in finding the balance to effective math instruction.
Written by Mandy Lam
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