Children's Arithmetic Skills Do Not Transfer Between Applied and Academic Mathematics (nature.com) 31
Children working in India's fruit and vegetable markets can perform complex mental calculations with ease, yet struggle with basic written math tests that determine their academic future, according to new research that raises troubling questions about mathematics education worldwide.
The study, published in Nature, reveals how traditional education systems are failing to tap into the mathematical talents of students who develop practical skills outside the classroom, particularly those from lower-income families. MIT economist Abhijit Banerjee, who grew up watching young market vendors deftly handle complicated transactions, led the research. His team found that while these children could rapidly perform mental arithmetic, they performed poorly on standard written assessments like long division problems.
The findings come at a critical moment when mathematics education must evolve to meet modern demands, incorporating data literacy and computational skills alongside traditional mathematics. The research points to systemic issues, including a global shortage of trained mathematics teachers and assessment systems that reward memorization over reasoning. Without addressing these challenges, researchers warn, naturally talented students from disadvantaged backgrounds may never reach their potential in fields like research, entrepreneurship, or teaching.
The study, published in Nature, reveals how traditional education systems are failing to tap into the mathematical talents of students who develop practical skills outside the classroom, particularly those from lower-income families. MIT economist Abhijit Banerjee, who grew up watching young market vendors deftly handle complicated transactions, led the research. His team found that while these children could rapidly perform mental arithmetic, they performed poorly on standard written assessments like long division problems.
The findings come at a critical moment when mathematics education must evolve to meet modern demands, incorporating data literacy and computational skills alongside traditional mathematics. The research points to systemic issues, including a global shortage of trained mathematics teachers and assessment systems that reward memorization over reasoning. Without addressing these challenges, researchers warn, naturally talented students from disadvantaged backgrounds may never reach their potential in fields like research, entrepreneurship, or teaching.
Algorithms (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Algorithms (Score:4, Interesting)
Mathematicians are rare and tend not to think like other people do. Traditional approaches may not work as well for them, but an approach tailored to them wouldn't work at all for everyone else. Hence the problem with Common Core/Singapore math. The tried-and-true works-for-almost-all approach should not be abandoned.
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And since the overwhelming majority of humans have no need, desire, or talent for pure mathematics, we should just stick with the approach that has over the centuries been proven to be the most effective.
What nonsense. Math is as essential a skill a reading: being innumerate is as bad in life as being illiterate, and a school system that isn't able to teach math to pretty much every student is failing horribly.
What is even this "traditional" approach that supposedly has "proven effective over the centuries?". Math teaching does not change fast but it certainly has not stayed the same "over the centuries", or across countries for that matter. So this "traditional approach" is that just whatever they happe
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I'm 45. I struggled with math in school until my Dad, a mechanic, taught me 'tricks' to do math. Those tricks are pretty much the basics of Common Core today. My grandfather worked for the railroad. I used to test him with my calculator, asking him 'crazy' (to a 4th/5th grader) math questions. He was always right. His explainations were also similar to what we call Common Core math today.
The skill seems silly when we use it on math we already have memorized, but really, when we approach math for which we ha
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Ah yes. It's not like the world has changed in the last few centuries.
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Majority of humans don't use pure mathematics, but that doesn't mean that they shouldn't. Few examples:
- Lottery
- Investing
- Should I rent or buy a house
- Finding marriage partner
- Deciding where to eat
- Deciding favorite chips flavor
All of these are math problems that have pretty easy to calculate answers. Yet hardly anyone actually uses math to make those decisions.
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The much-maligned Common Core attempted to teach math how mathemeticians think
No. That is the opposite of what Common Core does. Common Core observed that there are many way that people think about math, and it tries to introduce each of those different ways, so that the student can find the way of thinking that works best for them. Some learners went their entire lives not knowing the way that works for them, so they were constantly frustrated by math. What you are descriving is the old way, which was teaching math the way mathematicians think of it.
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The much-maligned Common Core attempted to teach math how mathemeticians think
No. That is the opposite of what Common Core does. Common Core observed that there are many way that people think about math, and it tries to introduce each of those different ways, so that the student can find the way of thinking that works best for them. Some learners went their entire lives not knowing the way that works for them, so they were constantly frustrated by math. What you are descriving is the old way, which was teaching math the way mathematicians think of it.
So all the people frustrated with common core math - usually parents who know the answer to a problem instantly, but find the CC math ridiculouse - they are what - stupid, lying, old school far right, or just wrong because reasons?
Apparently I do not think about math correctly. I wasn't good at it in school, but I was lucky to be in the last class that learned how to use slide rules in tech class. The moment I did simple multiplication, something clicked. Grades shot up, and I'd do most of the work in my
Real World Examples (Score:4, Interesting)
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This. PhD in physics here. Trust me, I had to learn a lot of math to get there.
Concepts are powerful and important, for summarizing what a body of knowledge entails. However, to absorb these concepts, you need to work on problems. That is what builds the pathways in your brain, and allows you to utilize the concepts flexibly.
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This! When I taught game programming to high school students you should have seen their eyes light up when I showed them how Pythagoras is used for distance calculation and SOHCAHTOA used for trajectory. Once the students had real world examples they wanted more mathematics. Many of them had to be retaught these basics because they dismissed it as not needed any longer once their math course was finished.
Arithmetic is not math (Score:3)
Yes, math uses numbers, but memorizing arithmetic rules and tables is a different skill than learning math
I suspect that many students who claim to "hate math", actually hate arithmetic and have poor memorization skills
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You missed MpVpRb's point: arithmetic != mathematics. You may need the former to have facility in the latter, but that doesn't mean they're the same. Nor does it mean that mathematicians are savants when it comes to mental arithmetic. Many aren't.
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I've thought about this a lot.
You have a narrow window when you are young. During this time, you must do rote memorization of your addition and multiplication tables - hundreds of times until you can do single digit problems in your sleep. If you don't, you will be fucked for life, finding it nearly impossible to do any further math.
Whatever mumbo jumbo is taught to kids outside of this window can be fixed later, but do not fuck around during this critical period because when it is closed, it is closed fo
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Real math is about applying logic and solving new problems with those skills. While being able to add and multiply quickly and accurately in your head makes things easier, it is a basic skill that's needed, but speed is not essential, its not what math is really about. Its what I think people who don't understand math think its about.
I remember reading Roald Dahl's Matilda and how he showed how she was brilliant at math, but stating something like the number just appeared in her head, well if you don't know
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They Might Transfer (Score:2)
They might transfer.
But I wouldn't count on it.
Does India have Math (singular) or Maths (plural) (Score:2)
I was born and raised in a commonwealth country, and we had Maths (short for Mathematics)
I thought that Math (singular) was an american invention.
Of course we memorized the 12 times table as kids because calculators hadn't been invented yet.
I guess western kids these days have cellphones so don't need to memorize tables or learn long division.
Calculus (Score:2)
This is probably related to the well-known phenomenon where some kids coast through math with mostly 'A' grades, maybe an occasional 'B+', without much effort... then stumble a bit in Calculus I, and totally crash & burn in Calculus II. And likewise, it's the inflection point where many kids who struggled with (and often, hated) "math" while growing up suddenly have their epiphany, do spectacularly well, and decide to become math majors halfway through college.
"inflection point" (Score:1)
I see what you did there :)
Critical moment my smelly rear-end. (Score:3)
No. That's dumb. Traditional mathematics hasn't changed, and the need for computer literacy is an entirely separate issue despite the traditional connection. That's the CS course, not the math class.
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how do some people become calculators (Score:2)
How do some people become human calculators? It know some people who are basically inept at most things, but they can multiply pairs of 4+ digit numbers accurately without having to really think about it. They're really good at card games, but don't ask them to do anything academic with math.
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How do some people become human calculators?
You drink the juice of Sapho
Examples Please (Score:2)
Can we get examples of these complex mathematics that the rural children are so good at? Because if it's all just spacial reasoning stuff that may be truly helpful in their personal lives but as far as I know doesn't have much applicability to frontier mathematics. Just because a kid can glance at a couple of baskets and tell you exactly how many times the capacity of the small one can fit in the big one does not mean they can solve hodge conjecture or that they would derive any benefit from training in s
Math in college (Score:1)
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I struggled with some math in college that was "on paper". Meaning that I know it would take me 15 seconds to write a script to solve the math problem, but struggled to do it by hand on paper. I even remember asking the 70-ish year old instructor why do math symbols and programming symbols have to be different. Especially for boolean operations, I realized that it was pointless arguing but I at least wanted to say it out loud. In my university physics course I had my laptop out and would write little scripts for solving different problems where I could just plug in the numbers that the professor wrote on the board and immediately get an answer. She seemed impressed that I came up with that way for a solution.
This exactly. Different people have different minds, and your writing a script to answer the problem is really cool. What is important is that it solves the problem, not you following some arcane method that someone thinks is how all minds operate.
Like me first using a slide ruler was an ephipany. I can do math in my head now by imagining a mechanical model. I don't know how many people operate the same. But it solves the problem.
And when my son brought home the common core math, I looked at the prob
Sexagesimal (Score:2)
We need to go back to Ancient Babylonian methods and rebuild all of our education on Base-60 math [wikipedia.org]! Only then can we plow our fields and properly determine the angle of a triangle.