Teaching Mathematics Effectively to Primary Students in Developing Countries : Insights from Neuroscience and Psychology of Mathematics

This paper uses research from neuroscience and the psychology of mathematics to arrive at useful recommendations for teaching mathematics at primary level to poor students in developing countries. The enrollment rates of the poorer students have improved tremendously in the last decade. And the global Net Enrollment Ratio (NER) has improved since 2001 from 83.2 percent to 90-95 percent except in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Making teaching of math and other subjects efficient for the poor in developing countries is a great challenge, particularly in south Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Many developing countries have explored new means of teaching math and other subjects. Mongolia changed its mathematics education, aiming to build a new set of priorities and practices, given the abandonment of earlier traditions. Similar to international trends of the time, South Africa in the 1990s extensively applied the constructivist learning philosophy which relied on exploration and discovery, with little emphasis on memorization, drill, In conformity with a belief that teachers could develop their own learning programs, there was virtual absence of a national or provincial syllabus or textbooks. Students were expected to develop their own methods for arithmetic operations, but most found it impossible to progress on their own from counting to actual calculating. This study integrates pertinent research from neuroscience and the psychology of mathematics to arrive at recommendations for curricular and efficient means of mathematics instruction particularly for developing countries and poor students at primary level. Specifically, the latest research in neuroscience, cognitive science, and discussions of national benchmarks for primary school mathematics learning, form the basis of our recommendations. These recommendations have a reasonable chance of working in the situational contexts of developing countries, with their traditions and resources.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Soendergaard, Bettina Dahl, Cachaper, Cecile
Format:	Working Paper biblioteca
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2008-12-30
Subjects:	ABILITY LEVELS, ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT, ACHIEVEMENT IN SCHOOL, ACHIEVEMENT SCORES, ACHIEVEMENT TESTS, ACHIEVEMENTS, ADULT STUDENTS, ADVANCED STUDENTS, ANALOGICAL REASONING, APTITUDE, ARITHMETIC, ARITHMETIC OPERATIONS, ATTENTION, BASIC SKILLS, BELIEFS, BILINGUAL EDUCATION, BILINGUAL PROGRAMS, BILINGUALISM, CBI, CHILDHOOD, CLASS SIZE, CLASSROOM, CLASSROOM SIZE, CLASSROOM TEACHERS, CLASSROOMS, COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT, COGNITIVE PROCESSES, COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, COGNITIVE RESEARCH, COGNITIVE SCIENCE, COGNITIVE SKILLS, COMPETENCE, COMPETENCIES, COMPUTER TECHNOLOGIES, CONCEPTUAL KNOWLEDGE, CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING, CONFORMITY, CONTROL GROUPS, COOPERATIVE LEARNING, CREATIVITY, CRITICAL THINKING, CURRICULA, CURRICULAR REFORMS, CURRICULUM, DECISION MAKING, DIRECT INSTRUCTION, DISSERTATIONS, EARLY GRADES, EARLY INTERVENTION, EDUCATION PROGRAMS, EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES, EDUCATIONAL PRACTICE, EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES, EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH, EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE, EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM, EDUCATORS, EFFECTIVE TEACHING, ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS, ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS, ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS, ELEMENTS, END OF GRADE, ENROLLMENT RATES, ENROLLMENT RATIO, EXAMS, FIRST GRADE, FORMAL EDUCATION, FORMAL SCHOOLING, FORMAL TEACHING, GENDER, GER, GIFTED STUDENTS, GIRLS, GRADE LEVELS, GROSS ENROLLMENT, GROSS ENROLLMENT RATES, HOMEWORK, HOURS OF INSTRUCTION, INCIDENTAL LEARNING, INFANTS, INSTRUCTION, INSTRUCTIONAL EFFICIENCY, INSTRUCTIONAL HOURS, INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS, INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES, INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY, INSTRUCTIONAL TIME, INTEGRATED LEARNING SYSTEMS, INTERVENTIONS, INTUITION, KINDERGARTEN, KNOWLEDGE BASE, LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT, LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION, LEADERSHIP, LEARNERS, LEARNING, LEARNING ACTIVITIES, LEARNING DIFFICULTIES, LEARNING DISABILITIES, LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS, LEARNING GROUPS, LEARNING MATHEMATICS, LEARNING METHODS, LEARNING OUTCOMES, LEARNING PRACTICES, LEARNING PROCESS, LEARNING PROCESSES, LEARNING PROGRAMS, LEARNING RESULTS, LEARNING STYLES, LEARNING THEORIES, LESSON PLANNING, LET, LITERATURE, LONG TERM MEMORY, MATH ACHIEVEMENT, MATH TEXTBOOKS, MATHEMATICAL PROBLEMS, MATHEMATICS, MATHEMATICS CURRICULUM, MATHEMATICS EDUCATION, MATHEMATICS INSTRUCTION, MATHEMATICS SKILLS, MATHEMATICS STUDENTS, MATHEMATICS TEACHERS, MATHEMATICS TEXTBOOKS, MENTAL REPRESENTATION, METACOGNITION, METAMEMORY, MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, MOTHER TONGUE, MOTIVATION, NATIONAL ASSESSMENT, NER, NET ENROLLMENT, NET ENROLLMENT RATIO, NORMAL TEACHING, NUTRITION, OLD STUDENTS, PEDAGOGICAL CONTENT KNOWLEDGE, PEDAGOGY, PERCEPTION, PLAYING, PRE-SCHOOL PROGRAMS, PRIMARY EDUCATION, PRIMARY GRADE, PRIMARY GRADES, PRIMARY SCHOOL, PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS, PRIMARY SCHOOLS, PRIMARY STUDENTS, PRIMARY TEACHERS, PRIMARY TEACHING, PROBLEM SOLVING, PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS, PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS, PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, PROFESSIONAL GROWTH, PROFICIENCY, QUALITY OF LEARNING, QUALITY OF TEACHING, QUALITY TEACHING, READING, REASONING, RECALL, RECOGNITION, RESEARCH FINDINGS, RESEARCHERS, RETENTION, ROTE LEARNING, SCHOOL CURRICULUM, SCHOOLS, SKILL DEVELOPMENT, SOCIAL STUDIES, SPEECH, STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT, STUDENT ATTITUDES, STUDENT LEARNING, STUDENT OUTCOMES, STUDENT PERFORMANCE, STUDENT PROGRESS, STUDENTS LEARNING, STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DIFFICULTIES, SUBJECT AREAS, SUBJECT MATTER, SUBJECTS, TEACHER, TEACHER EDUCATION, TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMS, TEACHER EXPECTATIONS, TEACHER KNOWLEDGE, TEACHER QUALIFICATIONS, TEACHER TRAINING, TEACHERS, TEACHING, TEACHING MATERIALS, TEACHING METHOD, TEACHING METHODS, TEACHING PRACTICE, TEACHING PROCESS, TEACHING PROGRAMS, TEST SCORES, TEXTBOOKS, TUTORING, TUTORS, UNIVERSITY LEVEL, UNIVERSITY STUDENTS, WORKBOOKS, WORKING MEMORY, YOUNG CHILDREN, YOUNG PEOPLE,
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/295371468154764509/Teaching-mathematics-effectively-to-primary-students-in-developing-countries-insights-from-neuroscience-and-psychology-of-mathematics http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28116
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