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Vlog Ep #10: Involving Parents in Their Children’s Math Education

 

How do you find the parents of your students? Are they helping their children to learn, or are they more of a hindrance?

Some parents can be incredibly difficult to cope with, of course. And sometimes an assertive manner and explaining the boundaries between their opinions and your professional work is called for.

But apart from those difficult parents, I strongly believe that parents should be kept informed about what we are teaching, and generally we should involve them as partners in their children’s education.

 

If you are going through a hard time coping with the parents of your students, please forgive me if my comments are off base or have caused you any offence; that is never my intention.

But if you agree that working with parents is a good thing, do share your tips below on how to achieve this goal.

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Vlog Ep #04: Math-Anxious Parents Produce Anxious Kids Who Know Less Math (research report)

Do you wonder about the wisdom of sending math homework home? Have you ever had a sneaky suspicion that parents may actually not be helping their kids learn math?

Well, now there’s evidence that supports your caution.

Research: Do Parents Help, or Hinder Their Kids’ Math Learning?

If you have any interest in helping kids with their math learning, I urge you to watch the video, then go and read this article:

Briefly, the findings of this year-long research using children in grades 1 and 2 and their parents were:

  • Parents who reported math anxiety themselves, and who helped their children with math homework resulted in children who:
    • were more anxious about  math themselves
    • learned less math over the year
  • Reading scores were not affected
  • Parents who did not help with math homework had no significant effect

This is a hugely important set of findings. I believe all K-6 math teachers should address the issues here, for the sake of their students’ learning.

Suggestions for Every K-6 Math Teacher:

  • Don’t set math homework that is likely to cause stress or anxiety in parents who themselves are not confident in math
  • Talk to parents about the messages they send (often unwittingly) to their children about math and math learning
  • Make suggestions to parents about low-stress ways to help their kids with math
  • Point out everyday activities that parents could use as springboards for incidental math conversations:
    • Shopping
    • Cooking
    • Budgeting
    • Deciding what to buy
    • Keeping track of sports scores, race times, etc.
    • Playing board games and dice games
  • Urge parents to let their children know that they believe in their children’s future success in math and to talk positively about how useful math is to all adults

► SUBSCRIBE to Professor Pete’s Classroom on YouTube to learn more expert tips on teaching K-6 math for understanding

Do you find this blog useful? Don’t miss another episode: Click below to register for our email notification list:

Do you find this blog useful? Don’t miss another episode: Click below to register for our email notification list:

 

Register Now!

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Math in the News: Babies Can Do More Math Than We May Have Realized

Infants as young as six months recognize interesting shapes. And babies who show higher spatial reasoning skills do better in math at age four. This is good news for parents and carers who purposefully try to help their children understand the world around them in explicitly mathematical ways: developing better spatial reasoning in infancy should result in better understanding of math generally when they start school.

Watch the video for more:

 

In this study, babies between six and thirteen months were shown images on two screens, where on one screen pairs of images appeared in a symmetrical arrangement. This caught the babies’ attention, and using eye-tracking technology the researchers were able to measure how often and for how long they focused on the more interesting images, and so deduce relative levels of spatial reasoning.

The really encouraging news for parents and carers who want to give their babies a head start before they start school is that higher abilities in spatial reasoning were associated with better math results at age four.

Since spatial reasoning is not a fixed ability but can be taught, I know what I will be doing when I get the chance with my grandchildren; all parents should do the same!

What do you think?

Does trying to expand young infants’ awareness of the world around them in targeted ways really help prepare them for school success? Share a comment below.

Reference Article

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