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 im...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Soendergaard, Bettina Dahl, Cachaper, Cecile
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2017
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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Summary:	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.

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

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