Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Liping Ma - knowing and teaching mathematics

I am reading this book at the moment (rather slowly between other things) and am really enjoying it. I am curious if anyone here has read it and has any thoughts to share? As much as I am finding it fascinating reading I am so inexpert on teaching math I am wondering what more knowledgable people might think of it.

I was interested in how differently long division is apparently taught here in Australia.

What's the difference?

I know that the method for subtraction taught in the USA is ridiculous.

I haven't read the book, but this AMS review was very positive.
http://www.ams.org/notices/199908/rev-howe.pdf

22b when I was a child we were taught to write the zeros in and why they were there (and I have checked with age peers and they had the same experience). Infact I think I peraonally was first taught to start the problem by writing in the zeros that will be required on each line before starting calculations (highlighting that i was dealing with tens, hundreds, thousands and so on), and it was also later examined why leaving the zeros blank would not change the outcome. I am not sure but I THINK it was eventually allowable to leave blanks but one friend I asked was adamant that this was always frowned upon...

My DD is in 6th and has also been taught to write in zeros and why you need them...

This approach seems to completely cut through a lot of the problems, confusions and angst raised in the book.

I've emphasized the zeros with my kids. Long division seems to make more sense that way.'

I'd be interested in learning about how subtraction is taught outside the US.

Well from the book Val it seems like the USA and china both do not use the zeros, but only the Chinese teachers understood that you COULD use zeros, how, why, etc but would still encourage moving back to blanks. The problem discussed is how to help a child who is right aligning every line of the problem (no blanks OR zeros). Most of the American teachers had a purely procedural knowledge and could do more than tell the kids "do it this way because it works" some thought adding zeros was actively wrong....

I'd be interest in how a whole list of countries deal with this too...

when DD initially started asking about numbers, we did nothing at all before she could expand numbers properly into their ones/tens/hundreds/whatevers - and when it was time to tackle operations, she just organized everything perfectly. she leaves blanks rather than writing them in, but i do hear her muttering about the would-be zeros a lot - maybe that is the secret of her success?

i'm going to get that book - it sounds cool! thanks!

I should add that math teaching in Australia seems completely faddish and often wrongheaded to me, I was just interested in this particular difference. Which I guess ties in with the author's observation that teachers' math teaching ability/process is deeply grounded in how they were taught. This just happens to be how my generation was taught multiplication and it's clearly carrying on.

Faddish example: our schools don't teach long division at all anymore, it got dropped from the curriculum for being irrelevant (or too hard?)

What is the ridiculous method of subtraction referred to above? I can't recall seeing anything that seemed out of the ordinary, but then again I do tend to ignore my kids' math worksheets a lot.

Mum, what do they teach instead of long division?

As far as I can tell short division only. And I guess the assumption they'll use calculators instead...

I'm still cracking up that my yr2 child's teacher has just come back from a conference full of the importance of children being proficient at doing all basic math in their heads before learning written algorithms.... Ya think? Like maybe we weren't all crazy to be annoyed at demands to show working for 2+3 when the kid just KNOWS it's 5?