Canada's math teachers should get back to basics, report says

A new report suggests that Canada's math teachers need to shifttheir focus away from discovery-based learning and move back towardstraditional methods.

The report from the C.D. Howe Institute says that Canadianstudents' math performance in international exams has been decliningbetween 2003 and 2012.

The report says that all but two provinces showed statisticallysignificant declines on the exams administered by the Organizationfor Economic Co-operation and Development.

The decline wasparticularlysteep in Manitoba and Alberta.

Report author Anna Stokke, an associate professor at the UniversityofWinnipeg,says teachers should base 80 per centof their math classes on direct learning such as memorizingmultiplication tables and practising long division.

She says 20 per cent should come from discovery-basedlearning techniques, which see students rely more on independentproblem-solving and hands-on materials and less on instructions fromthe teacher.

Stokke also says most provincial math curricula need to startteaching concepts such as fraction, addition and subtraction atearlier grade levels.

Herreport said the preference for direct learning is basedon the way the human memory functions.Discovery-based learning, it said, puts too much burden on theworking memory, which can retain information for a fewseconds at a time.

Asking students to master division through drawing pictures orother discovery-based techniques needlessly complicatesthe process, the report said, adding this approachis endorsed in six provincially approved math textbooks.

Direct learning more successful

Stokke said tackling math instruction through direct learning maybe more repetitive, but ultimately more successful.
When information in our working memory is sufficiently practised,it is then committed to long-term memory, after which it may berecalled later," the report said.

"An expert in mathematics stores a wealth of information inlong-term memory, acquired through hours of experience and practice;when a new problem is encountered, knowledge and techniques arerecalled from long-term memory to solve it."

The report cited Canada's performance on the OECD's Program ofInternational Student Assessment (PISA) as evidence that afundamental shift in math instruction may be necessary.

The report said that eight of 10 provinces recorded statisticallysignificant decreases in PISA scores between 2003 and 2012, addingQuebec held steady while Saskatchewan logged a much smaller decline.

By 2012, Manitoba had joined Newfoundland and Labrador and PrinceEdward Island as provinces with total scores below the OECD average.

In addition to her other recommendations, Stokke also suggestedthat future instructors should be required to pass a math contentlicensure exam before being allowed to teach the subject.