Explain this
Teaching Mathematics to Deaf Children
How the publisher describes it:
“From an early age, deaf children excel in thinking about and remembering what they learn through visual spatial instruction. This strength in information processing can be used in the mathematics classroom to achieve better learning outcomes.”
Review by Richard Knottenbelt
In brief:
This is one of the most stimulating books I have read on mathematics teaching. The simple ideas at the first levels and the things that go wrong at that stage obviously relate to what goes on, not only in deaf children at the beginning, but also to all learners who have difficulties.
“A wonderful book!”
A wonderful book!
I was brought up to believe that some people work better with equations while others are more effective with diagrammatic representations. When that became a conscious part of my belief system I set out to try and develop both in myself and also to give my pupils opportunities to do so.
I offered to review this book shortly after receiving a report that none of the deaf children supported by a local charity had managed anything other than bottom grades in their recent O-level exams. I believe that Teaching Mathematics to Deaf Children has much to offer to all teachers of maths at all levels and that its findings if implemented, would make a great difference in many maths classrooms, not only those with deaf children.
Terezinha Nunes tackles the question of whether deaf children achieve what their hearing peers do especially at the crucial early stages.. She has researched deeply into the achievements, drawing on relevant and meaningful research in a number of countries. She teases out what are clearly the critical areas from a theoretical point of view and shares elements of a practical programme which should give deaf children a better opportunity to develop their potential.
The author observed a class of 8 -year-olds being taught addition and subtraction number facts. The teacher put a question on the board and the children read the question and then provided the answer. She was puzzled why the pupils were not using their fingers. This surprise led her to commit herself to the research reported in the book.
Each chapter summarises research across a time scale of preschool and informal experience to the first few years of Primary school and sometimes beyond. The theoretical premises are that deaf children have generally less ability in short term memory and in processing sequential but relatively more ability in processing spatial tasks. This corresponds roughly to the language/picture , algebra/geometry divide except that the latter pair are years away from the reported research.
There is a strong feeling that the ‘read and respond with a learnt process’ is disadvantageous to deaf children. Terezinha Nunes describes the simple modifications to available materials which were used in an intervention programme which enriched the informal learning that deaf children seem to miss out on from their everyday experiences and provided materials which emphasised spatial presentation of information. The intervention showed, with the quite small but significant sample, that a considerable improvement in performance on standardized tests can be achieved.
The elements of the materials were the Number Line used with picture presentation of problems involving addition and subtraction. This analogue representation was developed with the symbolic representation to strengthen the grasp of number facts and relations. The approach was also used with multiplicative and divisional situations where table construction replaced the number line.
This is one of the most stimulating books I have read on mathematics teaching. The simple ideas at the first levels and the things that go wrong at that stage obviously relate to what goes on, not only in deaf children at the beginning, but also to all learners who have difficulties. The search for the logic of the mathematical process and ways of giving the children experiences from which they can develop their understanding especially by presenting information in ways appropriate to their own abilities and aptitudes is a wonderful challenge which seems very possible after the discussion and practical suggestions in this book.
Richard Knottenbelt • Victoria High School, Masvingo, Zimbabwe
Paperback: 190 pages
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell (15 Sep 2004)
Language English
ISBN-10: 186156340X
ISBN-13: 978-1861563408
Product Dimensions: 23 x 15.4 x 2 cm
