17 June 2011, inspektoren.blogspot.no
Yet another are skoleuke, and I have taken both the porch and a barbecue. Food is consumed, and digested now with the latest issue of Education. All accompanied by DeLillos. In my Skim of the Education Association fine magazine, caught my attention a little epistle to a photo reportage (side 30 - 33). Den forteller om Smeaheia skole som har tatt i bruk russiske skolebøker i matematikk. Fotoreportasjen viser blant annet et parentesuttrykk som virker altfor komplisert for 2. class boy who is set to solve it; 56-(52+14:7):9=?. Reference is made further to Zankovs system with a brief explanation of what this entails, and promotes the postulate Experience so far shows that children are ripe for mathematics at a far higher level and with a faster progression than we envisaged earlier.
What does this mean? I make me some thoughts. We have added up to a mathematic that as much should be meaningful and practical oriented students that we have abandoned the mathematical basic idea? Is it in the earliest years of schooling that the pupil has a mindset that is sufficiently plastic and curious that they are able to acquire the mathematical language and the basic understanding? Is it too late for students to abstract everyday expense to theoretical mathematics when they reach school age youth? If the answer is yes to these soørsmålene, what needs to change in today begins training in mathematics? Can these issues have a bearing on the position of science and stand in Norwegian educational system?
There were many questions and few answers, but it's well such as happens when a philologist trying to think about science!