Learning maths, at least in the West, has relied on chanting mantras of the multiplication tables and forcing our brains to follow a series of algorithms like long division. Unfortunately, teaching students to rely on these algorithms tends to blunt this natural capacity to know the approximate value of the correct answer. This means they lose the ability to notice when they are grossly out if they slip up using an algorithm or a machine. The right way to maximise the natural numeracy of the brain is to practise judging the correct approximate answer and use calculators, or any other gadget to compute the exact answer, if it is needed. In the light of these findings the recent decision to discourage calculators in classrooms is a disaster and will ensure another generation grows up thinking they are not numerate.
Bright children can learn in any way.
Average children need all the help we can give them. These discoveries will not make life easy for maths teachers, but it will make life easier for the population, which is rather more important. Examinations One of the thorniest subjects we have to address is the problem of examinations. We can use our brains in many different ways. We have to decide whether it is useful to develop the skill of storing information for the purpose of answering a series of structured, predetermined questions, or to develop our understanding of the meaning of information.