Pros & Cons of Everyday Math Curriculum
Everyday Mathematics is a system of teaching mathematics designed by the University of Chicago. The system has been implemented in many school districts across the nation including New York City school district and Washington D.C. schools. While the Everyday Mathematics was developed to make learning math more engaging to Kindergarten through sixth grade students, critics have charged that the learning system does not arm students with mastery of basic math skills.
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Practical Applications
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Everyday Mathematics emphasizes math lessons based on practical applications rather than on rote memorization, such as memorizing multiplication tables. The hope is that the lessons will be more engaging by matter of relevance to real life. Lessons are often included as part of an activity that is related to the student's life rather than solving a series of equations. A sample activity may include determining the ratio of vowels in a teacher's name or examining better prices for goods at the store. Washington D.C. schools found that students' mathematics scores improved by double in 2007 and 2009 after the district implemented an Everyday Math curriculum. However, California schools had opposite results after implementing Everyday Math in the early 1990s.
Reading Emphasis
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Because Everyday Mathematics relies on practical application to teach lessons, the system makes heavy use of word problems to communicate the narrative in which the problem is set. For children who have difficulty reading, such as children from low-income areas, the emphasis on word problems may increase the failure rate in mathematics. However, word problems are frequently the Achilles heel of elementary math students. Everyday Math correctly identifies the lack of practice in understanding word problems in traditional programs, though perhaps fails in making word problems its central focus.
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Spiral Model
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Teachers use a spiral model to teach topics in Everyday Math. A lesson may be taught and practiced an then revisited again and again throughout the year. The advantage to this method is that students are not as likely to forget lessons as they are one when one lesson after another are taught for large blocks of time and not revisited. Everyday Math spends less concentrated amounts of time on one topic but ensures that topics stay relevant by recurrent use. Opponents of Everyday Math point to this spiral methods as confusing and claim the short period of time spent on each math topic fails to provide students with the necessary practice to ingrain basic math skills in preparation for higher levels of math.
Conceptual Thinking
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Students are challenged to perform mathematic operations in their mind rather than on paper. The purpose of this is to encourage students to solve math problems more quickly and without the aid of the calculator. The program does also embrace the use of a calculator and spends an entire chapter on use and operation of calculators for solving math problems. The use of word problems too encourages students to think of math problems in terms of concepts, which are thought to prepare students for the work environment. However, kindergarten through first grade students may simply be too young for emphasis on conceptual thinking over basic skills building. Conceptual thinking is better applied in higher grade level mathematics when students can build on basic math skills.
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References
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