Interesting blog post here on primary maths teaching
thequirkyteacher.wordpress.com/2014/12/06/put-down-that-measuring-cylinder-and-step-away-from-the-pond/
The gist is that "My point is that the children are struggling with formal methods because they have not committed to memory the basic number bonds and multiplication facts required. Those that have committed the above to long term memory certainly won’t have used that knowledge to then perfect subtraction and division fluency/facts in order to become competent at column subtraction and short/long division. My hypothesis is that children just do not practise anything enough, ever."
As a secondary teacher I certainly get frustrated year after year with Y7s who have forgotten how to do long multiplication by any method, can't remember (or were never taught) the bus stop method of division and struggle to borrow when doing subtraction. I'm thinking that children should be coming out of primary as likely to forget these methods as they might forget how to read. My suspicion is that they spend a week doing long multiplication and then it's done, on to the next topic. But, I don't actually know what goes on in primary schools. This blog seems to confirm my fears, what are your experiences?
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Primary maths teaching - not enough practice?
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noblegiraffe · 13/12/2014 14:57
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