Explain this
Teaching Maths to Pupils with Different Learning Styles
How the publisher describes it:
“Some pupils find even basic concepts in mathematics difficult to grasp and it can be a challenge to make lessons accessible to all. This book offers practising teachers a range of approaches to making maths clear for struggling students.”
Review by Alison Parish
In brief:
If you have found pupils struggling to understand some aspects of mathematics at any age then this book is for you. It is a very readable book that would interest all those who work in classrooms, whether as a teacher or support worker with all ages and abilities, for those who work with older pupils as it gives possible approaches to use with those for whom basic skills are weak or have difficulty in understanding some of the concepts required of GCSE examinations.
“Some of the ideas are so simple and need a minimum of resources”
My immediate impression was that here is a book by someone who believes that ‘One size doesn’t fit all’! Our curriculum and examination structure is geared to being able to produce short answers to questions that don’t necessarily require understanding and are not always presented in context. There is, the author suggests, a section of the population for whom this is a disadvantage and does not let them show their potential in the best light. This is not due to their ability, but more to their way of thinking and learning.
The book starts by explaining three different types of learning, (auditory, visual and kinaesthetic) and how all the senses can be used to support learning. She explores the demands of the written form when studying mathematics and offers a range of models and images to help pupils learn, especially by those who are visual and kinaesthetic thinkers. She does, however, go on to explain that these models and images are neither as short, nor easier to memorise, than numerical or symbolic routines by those pupils who are able to learn without understanding.
The author intends that the ideas she gives are an illustration of an approach of which, she says, ‘You can start with practically any resource or activity, and see how it could be adapted for visual and kinaesthetic learners’. The key points are neatly summarised at the end of each chapter.
The book then continues by looking at number, algebra, shape space and measure, and data handling and identifies some areas where pupils do have difficulties grasping concepts. For instance many secondary pupils have difficulty when multiplying out brackets. The book gives an explanation of how the area model for multiplying works with algebra, even when they include negatives, so that pupils would be able to visualise why, if there are two negatives, it becomes necessary to add their product. It is these, what seem on the face of it to be simple and fairly obvious ideas that make the book worth having, if only to suggest there are other ways of trying to get pupils to understand and retain and use concepts at a later date not included in textbooks.
Some of the ideas are so simple and need a minimum of resources, for example, taking a packet of playing cards and shearing them to show that the area of a parallelogram is the same as a rectangle of the same height and concept that many pupils find hard to apply when meeting it after a time lapse. Within the book useful web addresses for resources (including free downloads) and also some photocopiable resources at the back.
If you have found pupils struggling to understand some aspects of mathematics at any age then this book is for you. It is a very readable book that would interest all those who work in classrooms, whether as a teacher or support worker with all ages and abilities, for those who work with older pupils as it gives possible approaches to use with those for whom basic skills are weak or have difficulty in understanding some of the concepts required of GCSE examinations.
Alison Parish • Second in Mathematics, Stowmarket High School, Suffolk
Paperback: 112 pages
Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd (28 Sep 2005)
Language English
ISBN-10: 1412903599
ISBN-13: 978-1412903592
Product Dimensions: 29.4 x 20.8 x 1.2 cm
