Our neighbors to the North of us have noticed their math scores declining. What is part of Canada doing about it?  National one-size-fits all overly convoluted math to the rescue? NOPE. Pretty much the opposite. They are teaching… wait for it… MATH FACTS and the nuts and bolts like algorithms and multiplication tables.  Actually, Canada is putting that type of teaching back in. 

From the Edmonton Journal’s article, Critics, ATA applaud minister’s revisions to Alberta math curriculum; emphasis added:

EDMONTON – Education officials are adjusting Alberta’s math curriculum and updating teachers for this fall to make sure students learn basic math facts, says Education Minister Jeff Johnson.

Critics say it’s a great start, but curriculum changes should go even further, making it mandatory for students to learn standard mathematics algorithms, the step-by-step procedures for addition, subtraction, division and multiplication.

Alberta Education is now updating the K-9 math curriculum, along with a K-9 teacher-support resource, to clarify what’s expected of students mastering basic number facts from grades 1-5, according to information from the department. Memorization of times tables will be mandatory, Johnson said.

“It’s not explicit enough now. The curriculum now has got away from language of memorization or recall, so we’re going to put some of that back in,” Johnson said. “The language in the curriculum … leaves some people able to interpret that it’s not something that’s required any more.”

Albertans have complained the current math curriculum favours problem solving and inquiry-based, “discovery” learning over memorization and rote learning, said Johnson. That’s not the intention, he said.

“We don’t want to disparage any method of learning, because different kids learn in different ways,” Johnson said. “We actually want to leave the method of instruction up to the teachers. We don’t want to prescribe that, because they’re the professionals.”

Imagine that. Letting teachers…. teach. What a novel concept that is!

So, why is are Canadians in Alberta putting the basics back into their math teaching and returning the reins to the teachers again? A petition asking for just that very thing,  started by a mom – Calmar physician Nhung Tran-Davies.  This petition called for a common sense return to teaching math and to get away from “discovery math”.

This “discovery math” sounds exactly like the convoluted Common Core math parents and students here are complaining about.   Read the excerpt below. My jaw hit the floor. This woman could be a mom in the United States right now fighting Common Core.

From the Edmonton Journal’s article,Why Nhung Tran-Davies, a mom and a small town family doctor, is leading the fight in Canada for better math education; emphasis added:

On her first report card this year, Kenya got an “A” in math, but after the international PISA results came out and Tran-Davies asked her daughter about the subject, the news wasn’t good. “She said she hated math and just doesn’t understand it. She said she and her friend found it to be the worst subject.”

The convoluted processes of a method known as “discovery math” was frustrating Kenya, even as she was able to get to the right answers. “It made math a repulsive idea,” her mother says. “The suggestion for her to do homework, she was repulsed by it.”

But just maybe, despite her strong classroom mark, Kenya simply wasn’t able to get math, Tran-Davies thought. She sat her daughter down and asked to add two-digit numbers, just as she’d been able to do as a four-year-old. Kenya first tried to answer by using the “discovery math” method that is the focus of most Canadian public schools.

In the discovery math system, teachers aren’t supposed to teach and have children practice the best and most efficient ways to add, subtract, multiply and divide. Instead, teachers are to act as guides as students try to discover and write out various strategies, such as estimating what the answer might be, in order to solve math problems. It’s an approach that leaves many young students perplexed, unable to do basic math and hating the subject, as Tran-Davies found with her daughter.

“She sat there and she was thinking and thinking. She was just looking at these numbers and you could thumb your fingers just waiting for her to get to the answers. In her mind I could see that she was trying to estimate or round or do something with these two sets of numbers to add.”

Tran-Davies told her to stop, and again taught Kenya the basic way to add by stacking the numbers and carrying over. “After a few exercises, she was doing it again. She was getting it. So I know that she is capable of doing math. She is bright. She was able to catch on quickly. She asked me for more questions and was having fun again.”

At last, Tran-Davies was convinced there was something wrong, but it wasn’t with her or with her daughter. The issue was the discovery math curriculum that is discouraging children, keeping them from loving math and also contributing to Canada’s drop in the PISA math rankings. Discovery math advocates boast it creates a deeper understanding of math, but it appears to be having the opposite effect, especially with its application to younger students.

That is just one excerpt. READ THE WHOLE THING. This woman is doing the same thing that moms are doing here in the states.

*Crossposted at StopCommonCoreNC.org