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IMPLICATIONS OF NEWMAN RESEARCH FOR THE ISSUE OF “WHAT IS BASIC IN SCHOOL MATHEMATICS?”

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IMPLICATIONS OF NEWMAN RESEARCH FOR THE ISSUE OF “WHAT IS BASIC IN SCHOOL MATHEMATICS?”

Author: Nerida Ellerton & M.A. (Ken) Celements

Publication Year: 1992

Abstract

In many countries there is a strongly held public view that the most important goal of elementary school mathematics is for young children to acquire a working knowledge of the . four operations and, in particular, to be able to obtain correct answers to pencil-and-paper number questions that require the application of standard algorithmic procedures (such as vertical addition and subtraction, long multiplication, short and long division). The main purpose of this. paper is to challenge this view by summarising data from Newman error analysis studies carried out in several countries which suggest that society in general, and teachers of mathematics and mathematics teacher educators in particular, urgently need to revise the traditional view of what constitutes "basic skills" in mathematics education. The Newman data indicate that an understanding of the vocabulary and the semantics of elementary school mathematics is fundamentally important. What is the point of children being able to carry out the mechanics of standard algorithms for the four arithmetic operations if, given a mathematics problem (verbally or in writing),' they either cannot understand the problem, or they cannot work out an appropriate sequence of operations?

Type: research paper

NERIDA ELLERTON AND M.A. (KEN) CLEMENTS
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