The Great Canadian Math Debate, Pt. 28: Math professor to Johnson: “Restoring times tables to the dysfunctional WNCP curriculum is like offering a severely dehydrated man a drop of water.”
Editor’s Note: In recent years, both Manitoba and Alberta, which belong to the WNCP (Western and Northern Canadian Protocol) implemented a discovery or inquiry-based math curriculum, which had been formulated by a group of education consultants. The WNCP curriculum was implemented in most Manitoba schools in 2006-2007 and in all Alberta schools by 2008-2009. The WNCP process had extremely limited input from math professors and other professionals, such as engineers and physicists, who use math in their work. The WNCP math curriculum is now under attack in Alberta from parents, educators, math professors and other experts. This same debate has been raging in Manitoba for several years. Math professors like Robert Craigen and Anna Stokke of the University of Manitoba have led the fight to have conventional math practices again taught in Manitoba classrooms, instead of downplayed or excluded. Craigen and Stokke have also played a significant role supporting the math petition put forward by Calmar mother and family doctor Nhung Tran-Davies. Today, Stokke gives her thoughts on Alberta Education Minister Jeff Johnson’s promise to bring back the memorization of times tables in the K-6 curriculum by next fall.
By Professor Anna Stokke
University of Manitoba associate math professor and contributor to WISE math
Jeff Johnson recently announced that Alberta students would be required to memorize times tables as of September, 2015. This is a positive step but can hardly be considered a victory for the almost 12,000 parents in Alberta who have recently signed Dr. Tran-Davies’ petition which requests that the government restore fundamentals of mathematics in Alberta schools.
It is important that children commit times tables to memory early since this frees up space in the brain for working on more complex problems. However, the very fact that this isn’t required by the WNCP curriculum – ad hoc methods like skip counting and doubling are encouraged instead – speaks to the extreme nature of this curriculum. As a mathematician, a mother of two young children in a WNCP jurisdiction and a vocal advocate for better math instruction for children I am very familiar with the WNCP curriculum.
Will restoring times tables to the curriculum solve the math crisis? No. Restoring times tables to the dysfunctional WNCP curriculum is like offering a severely dehydrated man a drop of water. He’ll gratefully take it but he needs much more than that to survive.
The WNCP curriculum needs to be completely rewritten but pushing more inquiry-based / discovery learning is certainly not the answer. It is unfortunate that Johnson has been led to believe that inquiry-based instruction is backed by research. Advocates have been unable to provide me with even one sound research study that supports the use of inquiry-based / discovery learning and I’ve been pushing for evidence for the past three years. Parents should be very leery about an announcement lacks substance and is almost certainly a deliberate attempt to calm the waters.
If Johnson really wants to improve things for Alberta children, he could start by involving end users of mathematics in a meaningful way in math curriculum design. Teachers must, of course, be involved but it is irresponsible to shut out experts in mathematics. Several mathematics professors in Alberta have voiced a willingness to help. Engineering professors, like Ken Porteous, have valuable experience to contribute. Physicists and other scientists are also very aware of what mathematics students need to learn in order to succeed.
My colleagues and I were recently one group requested to give feedback for revisions to the WNCP curriculum in Manitoba. Many of our suggestions were taken – addition with a carry, subtraction with a borrow, long multiplication and long division were explicitly added to the Manitoba curriculum. All language disparaging conventional instruction techniques was removed and language expressing the importance of practice was added. (Again, the fact that these very basic things are not included in the WNCP curriculum shows just how extreme it is.) We are far from completely satisfied with the revised curriculum in Manitoba, which is certainly a compromise document, but we were consulted and involved in a meaningful way.
Parents in Alberta are very upset about the current situation. They complain about children who are confused by the convoluted methods being taught for doing simple arithmetic. They complain about children being required to give several solutions to problems that should be straightforward. They complain about an over reliance on concrete materials, like blocks and fraction strips. They complain about children who have been turned off math because of these things. The stories are heartbreaking to read and Johnson’s decision to ignore them is puzzling.
Parents should continue to push the Alberta government to abandon plans to double down on discovery / inquiry-based learning. The standard methods for arithmetic (vertical addition, subtraction, long multiplication and long division) should be explicitly added to the curriculum and these efficient methods should be the primary focus instead of convoluted, confusing methods that only work in contrived situations. Teachers should not be forced to teach multiple strategies for simple problems and students need to move beyond pictures and concrete materials and onto symbolic mathematics in a reasonable amount of time. This would ensure that children actually have the confidence and tools to work on challenging mathematics problems. An announcement that these things would be undertaken would be far more meaningful than simply adding times tables to the curriculum.