Carol Vorderman’s: Maths Made Easy (3-5yrs): Adding and Taking Away
This book is one of a series of ‘maths workbooks for preschoolers and primary school children’ published by Dorling Kindersley promoted by Carol Vorderman who is quoted as saying 'The more you practice, the better you’ll be at Maths!'. There are four books in the 3-5 years pre-school range: Numbers; Adding and Taking Away; Shapes and Colours and Matching and Sorting. In key stage 1 there are five books produced and in key stage 2 there are ten books. All available to purchase at high street shops aimed at parents. The book reviewed here claims to 'encourage children to understand that adding means ‘more than’ and taking away means ‘fewer than’, as well as the '+' and '-' symbols'. There are 31 worksheets (one per page) and an 8 page pull-out for parental guidance.
Most readers of MT will be familiar with the practice of ghost writing in which sportsmen and others not necessarily known for their literary skills have their “autobiographies” written for them. Well, joy of joys, ghost writing is now an element of the educational literature. Despite the banner headline designed to attract an unsuspecting public, a closer inspection reveals that the book was written by Su Hurrell, a name significantly less likely to induce parents to buy a book than that of the ubiquitous Carol. So what can we infer from this? Presumably it means that Carol Vorderman has been suitably rewarded for colluding in a publishing duplicity and Dorling Kindersley reaps the rewards of better sales.
The book is presented in exactly the same manner as the ‘workbook’ for 10-11 year olds which makes one cringe! Since when have resources appropriate for children about to sit their key stage 2 tests been appropriate for those just beginning their educational adventure? There are lots of cute illustrations of ladybirds, apples and balls and other fine examples, as can be seen below, of the triumph of presentation over content.
Readers will be pleased to know that on page one can be found a certificate on which is printed the legend,
'congratulations to ... for successfully finishing the book. You’re a Star!'
What a profoundly disappointing beginning; start with the finish. I suppose one could (if one was having a bad day) describe it as an incentive. But this, and before the pedants start writing letters to the editor, my use of the conjunction at the start of a sentence is a deliberate literary device, is followed immediately by a page of adhesive gold stars to be stuck on the worksheets as they are completed. What does this teach our young children? What values are being encouraged? What price intrinsic motivation? Moreover, what message are we allowing the publishing community to send to parents worried about their children’s futures? The very first pages of this book scream, to anyone serious about education, “don’t bother with the firelighters, we can use this”. Flippancy to one side, the message is important, we need our children to see education as something to be valued not endured; something of intrinsic worth and not the human equivalent of performing sea-lions.
Sadly, it doesn’t get much better. The book is riddled with conceptual errors and linguistic flaws. For example, there is a set of pull-out pages with (of course) the answers, which are prefaced with some notes for parents. The notes explain that the book is for ‘children who have the ability to count from zero up to 20, with a good understanding of the order and value of numbers’. This assumes that parents understand the concept of zero sufficiently well to be aware of the conceptual problems it creates for three year olds. They then go on to say that 'If your child has these skills…' Skills? Are knowing and understanding the value of number - and don’t forget we are discussing the ability to count with one-to-one correspondence as well as conservation of number here - skills? One might concede that ordering numbers efficiently could be called a skill, but to order with understanding and to comprehend the value of number is a cognitive not a behavioural outcome. Is the author unaware of the extensive research on young children’s developing understanding of number?
One could continue. The book tells us that once children have these skills, ‘they are probably ready to explore and investigate problem solving using numbers’. But the book contains no problem solving, unless the author’s meaning of problem is different from that found in the literature, only exercises, reinforcing a narrow and procedural view of mathematics. Indeed, as one ploughs one’s way through the notes the black cloud of depression turns to anger as they continue to present an outdated and, essentially discredited, approach to the learning of mathematics. Remember, this book is written for three year olds and there are even revision pages after each stage.
The claim on the inside of the back cover is that ‘these’ workbooks provide a sound start to the national curriculum and have been developed in line with the national numeracy strategy. It seems to me that this claim seems to have slipped the author. For example, we are informed that
+ means ‘and’ (apparently that is all it means!)
- means ‘take away’ (apparently that is all it means!)
= means ‘makes’ (Hmmm!)
This leads us inevitably to the question, what conceptual or pedagogical understanding of mathematics has the author? What does she know of early years education in general and early years mathematics in particular?
In conclusion, as I indicated above, don’t bother buying firelighters as this book will do the job just as effectively. Moreover, in so doing, you will be doing young children and their parents a favour. To say the least, I am disappointed that Dorling Kindersley should be prepared to sacrifice its reputation for quality educational materials for such a cynically-positioned, ill-considered and inappropriate book. ‘Maths Made Easy’? What a joke. We all understand parents' concerns about their children’s future and the importance of a “good” start, but this book will provide nothing of the sort.
Judy Sayers - University College Northampton
Senior Lecturer in primary and early years mathematics education
Dorling Kindersley
ISBN: 1405309482
