Archive for the ‘Learning Research’ Category

It is always nice to have a fresh perspective on old traditions, but math on a holiday? Many kids will groan if their parents suggest such a thing. There is a way to make the connection between Thanksgiving and math, but it’s always nice to start off this lesson with a story. Thanksgiving is a time of year when teachers traditionally review the great harvest, discuss the Native American and pilgrim lifestyle, and help students find time to give thanks about something in their lives. It can be hard for kids to make the connection about people from hundreds of years ago, even if there is a common thread of giving thanks. In the Thanksgiving Wish, author Michael J. Rosen writes about a non-traditional Thanksgiving in modern times. A power outage, a missed grandmother, as well as Jewish and Asian traditions line the edges of this touching story.

I just got back from a great three day "Dust or Magic" conference run by Warren Buckleitner for people who create children's technology products. (The title is a quote from a 17th century philosopsher named Matsuo Basho: "An idea can turn to dust or magic, depending on the talent that rubs against it.") Guided by Warren, about 65 of us viewed products, learned from each other, and discussed best practices to create "magic" products and learning games that use technology to improve children's lives. And yes, we ALL agreed that children should spend most of their time playing with other children and adults, using real things, and going outside! And we also agreed that many -- perhaps the majority? -- of technology toys and online media are "dust". But, and this is an important but, many products use technology in ways that open up new opportunities for children, and let them learn and explore and play in wonderful new ways. These are the products that are "magic"!

We've had a lively discussion in our office this week about the recent New York Times article on issues in US math education in general, and in encouraging girls to be successful in math in particular (“Math Skills Suffer in U.S., Study Finds” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/10/education/10math.html). What’s one of the reasons US students are falling behind in math? As the article says, “American culture does not highly value talent in math, and so discourages girls – and boys, for that matter – from excelling in the field.” As early as late elementary school or middle school, kids who used to love math all of a sudden realize that it’s not “cool”, and/or that “math is really hard and I’m not good at it so I won’t try very hard”. Talk about pre-ordaining failure!

I know parents wonder what’s the appropriate age for their children to begin learning to use the computer. Common sense dictates that there’s probably an age at which it’s too early to begin exposing children to computers, even though children are often attracted to it quite young because they see family members using it; and many parents quite naturally see the computer as an opportunity to make learning fun for their children. I recently came across a great resource for answers to this question, published by the Illinois Early Learning Project (http://illinoisearlylearning.org/tipsheets/computers.htm).

I had the opportunity to talk with a number of parents over the last few weeks while their children were in the office testing the upcoming version of our math learning adventures, DreamBox Learning K-2 Math. And as we often hear, many parents wisely limit “screen time” for their children. But aside from the fact that kids need to play in other healthy ways, there’s another issue that I’ve become very conscious of: exposing young children to commercial messages in online games, even on so called “learning fun” sites. According to Consumer Reports magazine: "young children have difficulty distinguishing between advertising and reality in ads, and ads can distort their view of the world." (There’s a good article about this on the Media Awareness Network site: http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/parents/marketing/issues_kids_marketing.cfm)

Recently I wrote about one of the key issues in the recent Bellevue teacher strike: the mandated scripted curriculum. But this is a complex issue and I think there’s a larger point to be made about this: the connection between the standardized curriculum and standardized testing. To be clear about this, Bellevue teachers didn’t strike against standardized tests. But standardized curricula are being implemented to improve standardized test scores. And what is being sacrificed in order to improve scores?

There is much debate surrounding whether or not listening to classical music affects intelligence (read the Science Daily's pro take and the Skeptic's Dictionary's con.) Official studies aside, I personally believe the connection with music is not only to intelligence, but also to math. Especially for those who play(ed) instruments.

Just as parents need to make sure their children eat a mix of healthy foods - with reasonable limits on junk food and sweets - we need to have the same mindset about what our children watch. That’s the message of a recent New York Times article: Limiting, and Watching, What Children Watch, by Lisa Guernsey, and I couldn’t agree more!

Psychologists from John Hopkins University recently published a study that shows a correlation between innate number sense and math achievement in school. To measure number sense the authors showed 14-year-old children images of blue and yellow dots and asked the child if there were more blue dots or yellow dots. The images were shown for less than a second so the students could not count them and instead had to estimate which group had more. Most students did well when one group was significantly bigger, but some students were much better when the difference was smaller.