New math curriculum earns high marks from Brandon University, School Division

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This article was published 20/06/2013 (4472 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Pressure from the university level has prompted the province to revise the kindergarten to Grade 8 math curriculum and a Brandon University professor says the changes can’t come soon enough.

“I think it’s long overdue,” said Jeff Williams, chair of BU’s department of mathematics and computer science. “We have the problem of students entering who have no understanding of mathematics or very little understanding of mathematics and very little knowledge.”

Those students are forced to play catch-up and relearn the math they were already taught in elementary and high school, he said.

If students aren’t able to relearn the material quick enough, they are advised to see a tutor or visit the math assistance centre on campus.

“A lot of students reach a roadblock here at BU because they just can’t handle mathematics adequately,” he said. “Knowing the times tables, knowing how to add basic fractions and not just being let out of high school until they can at least handle mathematics at an elementary level is a good start.”

The province has announced it will be taking kindergarten to Grade 8 math education back to the basics come September.

Brandon School Division chair Mark Sefton also applauded the move.

“Manitoba ranks on the lower half of Canadian provinces, Canada as a whole ranks in the top five in the world, but Manitoba has ranked in the bottom half in Canada and so the province is concerned about that,” he said. “By making this move, hopefully results will improve.”

Under the new curriculum, students will be expected to memorize their times tables, learn to multiply and divide on paper and in their heads before they pick up a calculator.

A website will also be available for parents to help them understand the math their children are learning and teacher candidates will be expected to take heavier math courses in high school that they’ll later teach to students.

The province listened to parents, educators and math experts, who raised concerns that children were not getting the basic skills they needed to do arithmetic and solve problems.

The new curriculum strikes the right balance between developing math skills, procedural thinking, conceptual understanding and problem-solving to ensure students are getting a solid foundation in math, Education Minister Nancy Allan said in a press release issued Tuesday.

“We use math every day and by providing a strong math education to our students, we will lay a strong foundation for their future and the future of Manitoba,” she said.

Overall, Brandon students rank at or above the provincial average when it comes to mathematics, Sefton said.

Prior to being the school board chair, Sefton was a math teacher for Grade 7 to 12 for nearly 32 years, giving him plenty of opportunities to spring mental math quizzes on his students.

“No matter what grade level, I always started every class with 10 mental math questions.”

While even basic mental math problems would often trip up some of his students, he did notice the presence of a variety of skill levels in the classroom.

“There’s always a range, but I can’t say that I saw there was a deterioration over time and I can also say that at the high school level … it became more and more rigorous and more challenging as time went by and kids responded to the challenge and did very well.”

An increased emphasis on mental math will be a good thing, Brandon School Division Supt. Donna Michaels said.

“I use my mental math skills often in situations … I wasn’t from the generation that taught kids to rely on a calculator,” she said. “So I think calculators have a place, but I think students should be able to memorize the basic times tables and some of the processes.”

Brandon’s math results are good overall, Michaels said, but admits there are principals and teachers who would like to see them stronger in certain areas.

“Elementary levels have a lot of demands on them and it’s a different curricular structure than senior high, but we have been concentrating on mathematics very heavily in the last number of years, we have a numeracy specialist … and we have a policy on numeracy … and we’re working on a set of procedures, but we emphasize numeracy in our strategic plan.”

Prior to becoming vice-principal at George Fitton School two years ago, Jaime Lombaert was the school division’s numeracy specialist.

He said part of his job was to help implement curriculum changes with math teachers and communicate with schools how they were doing in math. A bigger emphasis on mental math was one of the changes being implemented during his time as numeracy specialist.

Although Lombaert admits that not every student is at the same level when it comes to math, he said the school division does have the appropriate resources to help them get there.

“Not everybody is at grade level at any school, not just at George Fitton School … but we have our focuses in numeracy that we’re using to try and increase students understanding in math.”

» lenns@brandonsun.com