(My Enquiry Focus – alternative methods four operations)
I recently read a new publication by Jo Morgan
” A Compendium of mathematical methods “.
I found this book enlightening. I especially like the scripts Jo put in for explaining these new concepts to students ( I will adopt these in my enquiry).
Jo confirmed that there hasn’t been much research done in this area
” For most topics in school mathematics, there has been little research into the ‘best’ methods.
— In more recent years, alternatives have emerged, and we are now left with a plethora of wonderful methods to choose from.” pg 9
Jo presents the methods without bias but believes it’s important for teachers to understand a variety of methods
” For if you take just one thing from this book, let it be this: we need to talk about methods.” pg 341.
My initial experiments with new methods have been going well in some areas, the new addition method has given a significant boost in post-test of addition, which is promising.
I do have some concerns with boundary examples of the new methods especially in their application to decimals
Subtraction
Multiplication
Both of the new methods require a much deeper understanding of place value.
In not sure if this is good or bad.
The group I’m targeting won’t focus on decimals as they are at level 1 Cfe but it worries me that this method doesn’t have as broad applicability.
