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I am seeking to understand why my daughter's teacher is doing this. This is, in part, from an email I sent out this morning. I guess it's ok for the kids to use fingers at home, just not in class. I have been encouraging my daughter to use her fingers based on some of what I read linked below, which I ran across a few years back. The first link leads to an article by Stamford professor, Boaler noting that "In a separate study of 47 six-year-old pupils, researchers found that participants arithmetic knowledge increased once they had been trained on how to differentiate between their fingers. "So important is finger perception that it could even be the reason that pianists, and other musicians, often display higher mathematical understanding than people who don't learn a musical instrument," Boaler suggests.
Further, the Go Math books used by our school make good use of counters, which is essentially 2-D spatial representative objects and the same thing as fingers. There seems to be a disconnect here whether it?s counters, an abacus, or fingers. As a mother of daughters I am also cognizant of the fact that girls statistically lag in spatial development. I think we should encourage opportunities for spatial processing at every opportunity in and out of the classroom. So, now I am working with my daughter this morning and she is actively trying to not use her fingers when doing her math and I am not sure how to proceed moving forward.
I do not want her to be discouraged from using her fingers, but perhaps I am missing something? Is there a reason that a teacher would prefer students not to use their fingers?
I am seeking to understand why my daughter's teacher is doing this. This is, in part, from an email I sent out this morning. I guess it's ok for the kids to use fingers at home, just not in class. I have been encouraging my daughter to use her fingers based on some of what I read linked below, which I ran across a few years back. The first link leads to an article by Stamford professor, Boaler noting that "In a separate study of 47 six-year-old pupils, researchers found that participants arithmetic knowledge increased once they had been trained on how to differentiate between their fingers. "So important is finger perception that it could even be the reason that pianists, and other musicians, often display higher mathematical understanding than people who don't learn a musical instrument," Boaler suggests.
Further, the Go Math books used by our school make good use of counters, which is essentially 2-D spatial representative objects and the same thing as fingers. There seems to be a disconnect here whether it?s counters, an abacus, or fingers. As a mother of daughters I am also cognizant of the fact that girls statistically lag in spatial development. I think we should encourage opportunities for spatial processing at every opportunity in and out of the classroom. So, now I am working with my daughter this morning and she is actively trying to not use her fingers when doing her math and I am not sure how to proceed moving forward.
I do not want her to be discouraged from using her fingers, but perhaps I am missing something? Is there a reason that a teacher would prefer students not to use their fingers?
A teacher will incorporate methods instead of thwarting them .
As a visual ,tactile thinker I was discouraged by my teacher to use visual aides. Set me back two years. Then I had the teacher who saw what worked in my learning habits.
Tell her there is more then "her" way to teach. Then give her the material to read.
Once she gets past her ego..she may find its beneficial to find what works.
I feel like this has come up before. When I first started teaching, I thought it was not a good sign when I saw students counting on their fingers and I thought maybe they needed more practice on basic addition facts. Though, I did notice that it was my accelerated/honors students who seemed to use their fingers quite a bit more than my regular classes. I had a negative view of finger usage the first few months and it was because I thought it was some kind of deficiency in knowing math facts. After several years of teaching, I got used to this pattern, noticing that advanced math students in elementary grades tended to use their fingers to count quite a bit more, while struggling students just tried to guess/remember the answer, tending to make more mistakes.
My guess is that the math teacher is applying some old school thinking and biases. While possibly good-intentioned, it's going to be counterproductive. There are a lot of things I have seen over the years that are common among math teachers, but they are just not good techniques overall. The idea that using fingers to count is somehow a sign of weakness in math is a misconception that is shared among most teachers and parents. Everything I've seen in practice is to the contrary. Struggling students don't use resources well, adept students do.
I've spent many hours trying to undo bad techniques, it's just part of the game with being a math teacher.
What about students who are more visually & tactically oriented learners? I was the only RN grad to take the Colorado State Board in 1992 & pass first time; who did not use a calculator during the test.
I wrote out everything longhand & probably did 'use my fingers' here & there. My pharmaceutical dosages & IVF drip rate calculations were accurate, I did not 'theoretically kill' any patients & never committed such an error in my career either.
I am hyperlexic & my brain flip-flops numerals. If you hand me an appointment card that says 'On May 5th at 4 pm'; my brain will read & remember it as "May 4 at 5 pm'. 'June 12' may become 'June 21'. If I were to be forced to use rote memorization skills for math; I would be no more successful than a deaf person would be who wasn't allowed to TALK with their hands!
I went to school in the 60s and remember being told not to count on my fingers. Instead, I just learned to do it in a way that my teachers couldn't see: I put my hands on the desk or in my lap spread out and counted by pressing downward.
I wasn't able to memorize much before 2nd grade. That's just how my mind was. I was "behind" in reading, too, until about mid-way through 2nd grade. All I can say is that "something" happened in my brain. I was reading silently one day and suddenly I knew what all of the words on the page said. And then I found that I didn't need to count on my fingers anymore. It's like the knowledge had been dammed up or something.
So, my take away was let them do what they need to do. Our brains mature at different rates.
My daughter was also told not to use her fingers. IMO, if the teacher takes away a tool (the fingers), it is the teacher's job to bridge that gap between counting with fingers to mental math.
What we ended up doing was making our daughter memorize how many more fingers she needed to make 10. So we did not abandon using fingers. We did this until she memorized all of the addends for 10.
Then we moved on to sums greater than 10. For example, 6+5. So since she 'memorized' that 6+4 = 10, the 5 was just one more which makes 11. At first, she needed to confirm with her fingers and counters. But after a while, her calculations became mental math. That was the first hint that she was developing number sense and this didn't really happen until late in 2nd grade.
What does the teacher in question say is the reason?
So far her response was a thank you for the information. I'm hoping I didn't aggravate her or left her feeling defensive.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nov3
A teacher will incorporate methods instead of thwarting them .
As a visual ,tactile thinker I was discouraged by my teacher to use visual aides. Set me back two years. Then I had the teacher who saw what worked in my learning habits.
Tell her there is more then "her" way to teach. Then give her the material to read.
Once she gets past her ego..she may find its beneficial to find what works.
I provided her with a number of links. I don't know if they're all bruhaha or valuable. The arguments for finger counting seems like there is something to it, though.
I feel like this has come up before. When I first started teaching, I thought it was not a good sign when I saw students counting on their fingers and I thought maybe they needed more practice on basic addition facts. Though, I did notice that it was my accelerated/honors students who seemed to use their fingers quite a bit more than my regular classes. I had a negative view of finger usage the first few months and it was because I thought it was some kind of deficiency in knowing math facts. After several years of teaching, I got used to this pattern, noticing that advanced math students in elementary grades tended to use their fingers to count quite a bit more, while struggling students just tried to guess/remember the answer, tending to make more mistakes.
This is exactly what the research shows. And what is alarming to me is that my daughter is now trying to guess rather than use her fingers.
Quote:
My guess is that the math teacher is applying some old school thinking and biases. While possibly good-intentioned, it's going to be counterproductive. There are a lot of things I have seen over the years that are common among math teachers, but they are just not good techniques overall. The idea that using fingers to count is somehow a sign of weakness in math is a misconception that is shared among most teachers and parents. Everything I've seen in practice is to the contrary. Struggling students don't use resources well, adept students do.
I've spent many hours trying to undo bad techniques, it's just part of the game with being a math teacher.
What grade are you teaching? This is the first grade.
Quote:
Originally Posted by P47P47
Ask your daughter's teacher where she thinks the base-10 (decimal) system started.
No doubt. If she reads the links I sent she will come across that idea. Sometimes the obvious is not so obvious.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Meemur
I went to school in the 60s and remember being told not to count on my fingers. Instead, I just learned to do it in a way that my teachers couldn't see: I put my hands on the desk or in my lap spread out and counted by pressing downward.
I wasn't able to memorize much before 2nd grade. That's just how my mind was. I was "behind" in reading, too, until about mid-way through 2nd grade. All I can say is that "something" happened in my brain. I was reading silently one day and suddenly I knew what all of the words on the page said. And then I found that I didn't need to count on my fingers anymore. It's like the knowledge had been dammed up or something.
So, my take away was let them do what they need to do. Our brains mature at different rates.
That's the thing. Memorizing is not something I want for my kids. I want them to conceptually understand what they are doing and why.
As far as the using fingers goes, to me it looks like reinforcement to the motor cortex development related to the digits and counting. Kind of like rooting that memory in the developing brain and no doubt eventually we do not need the tactile clues or stimulus.
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