Primary Grades Math Education
Educate Yourself: A Cross Country Comparison
Teaching Techniques: Comparison
Which methods have proven effective?
Many people are unaware of the variety of methodologies available for teaching math and their benefits. It is important to educate teachers and parents about the various techniques and structures available, so they can make educated decisions about how best to educate students mathematically. Often teachers are taught one or two methods for teaching mathematics, and not made aware of the various options available to them. The truth is that there are numerous ways to teach early math; whether these are the specific teaching methods themselves, or the individual techniques to solving addition and subtraction problems, and these techniques differ between countries and regions.
International comparisons and assessments comparing primary mathematics scores between countries show higher grade and score averages among countries that have similar themes. Many of these top performing countries, among which are Finland, Singapore, and Japan, are similar in their support of child-centered teaching, their encouragement that students focus on the process and conceptual understanding of working through a problem, highly trained teachers, a trust in teachers from society and the government, and cultural support.
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Another important characteristic of successful elementary mathematics systems is a child-centered curriculum. Many of the most successful countries in regards to primary grade mathematics education have adapted to focusing on students’ futures and potential instead of their past and where they came from (Rasmussen & Bayer, 2014, p. 817). Successful countries are striving towards helping students grow as individuals and live up their potential. Making learning relevant to students is also an important aspect of teaching, especially in this constantly changing world. One important aspect of the Singapore education system is that the Ministry of education makes a point of describing that society is adapting, and
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the educational system must continuously change and update to meet the needs of a changing society. When learning is relevant and appropriate for students, they will be engaged and engaging in productive learning.
Encouraging students to try, not to focus on the results: as seen in lesson study has strong benefits to students. This is a characteristic which is displayed prominently in lesson study, but is also a characteristic of Singapore’s and Finland’s educational styles. These systems focus on the process of learning and the search for an answer, not the conclusion. That is why in Japanese lesson study, students only end up working with one problem by the end of the lesson.
Respecting teachers to make decisions beneficial to students as they have gone through the schooling to know what is best. (In comparison with always telling them what is right and wrong: or enacting policies such as common core and ESSA which are not backed statistically.) There is a large amount of research suggesting that teacher quality and teaching implementation plays a prominent role in students’ mathematics, and overall, learning success (Rasmussen & Bayer, 2014, p. 798). “Granting schools more autonomy over the curriculum may give teachers more opportunities to adapt their instruction to students’ needs and knowledge” (OECD, 2016, p. 13).
Small classes are another aspect that has been shown and proven to correlate with students success. This does not mean it is causational, but it also makes sense that students do better when they have greater one on one interactions from the teacher and get more attention. “On average across OECD countries, students in smaller classes reported more frequently than students in larger classes that their teachers adapt their instruction to students’ needs, knowledge and level of understanding” (OECD, 2016, p. 11). The teachers can also than better filter their teacher to best benefit all students.
Resources
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Kirwan, L. (2015). Mathematics curriculum in Ireland: The influence of PISA on the development of Project Maths. International Electronic Journal Of Elementary Education, 8(2), 317-332.
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Lewis, S. (2017). Governing schooling through ‘what works’: the OECD’s PISA for Schools. Journal Of Education Policy, 32(3), 281-302. doi:10.1080/02680939.2016.1252855
OECD (2016). PISA 2015: Results in focus. OECD Publishing, Paris. https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisa-2015-results-in-focus.pdf
Rasmussen, J., & Bayer, M. (2014). Comparative study of teaching content in teacher education programmes in Canada, Denmark, Finland and Singapore. Journal Of Curriculum Studies, 46(6), 798-818. doi:10.1080/00220272.2014.927530
U.S. Department of Education (2017). Fast facts: International comparisons of achievement. In NCES: National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved April 10, 2017, from https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=1
U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2016). The Condition of Education 2016 (NCES 2016-144), International Assessments.
Comparing between Countries: What is PISA?
PISA, or the Program for International Student Assessment, measures students performance in math, science, and reading. The test is enacted every three years and tests 15 year-olds cross-culturally. The most recent version of PISA, is from 2015 (https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisa-2015-results-in-focus.pdf) “PISA results reveal what is possible in education by showing what students in the highest-performing and most rapidly improving education systems can do. The findings allow policy makers around the world to gauge the knowledge and skills of students in their own countries in comparison with those in other countries, set policy targets against measurable goals achieved by other education systems, and learn from policies and practices applied elsewhere” (OECD, 2016, p. 3).
PISA, also compares which methods work best for schools. “This is an important message revealed by PISA results: in countries and economies where more resources are allocated to disadvantaged schools, overall student performance [is] somewhat higher” (OECD, 2016, p. 13).
What is TIMSS?
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TIMSS, or the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study, is an international examination and questionnaire similar to PISA, but focused solely on Mathematics and Science. The test is generally administered to students in Grades 4 and 8. It is a method of comparison between countries. TIMSS is enacted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, or IEA. More than 60 countries and/or education systems were involved in TIMSS in 2015, the most recent study year.
