The Morgridge College of Education at the University of Denver held another phase of their Kennedy Lecture Series this past Tuesday afternoon in Katherine A. Ruffato Hall. At around four o’clock in the afternoon, Sarama spoke to a small crowd regarding the importance of math, especially in early childhood development.
As the smell of Sexy Pizza filled the air, the crowd settled in for Sarama. Whispers began to settle down, and Sarama came to the stage, full of character, presence and attitude.
“Math matters, even though you all think it doesn’t,” she exclaimed. Sarama then pretended to drop the mic, and the crowd’s heartfelt laughter followed. “But really,” she continued. “A strong grasp of mathematics at an early age strongly correlates with later school success and growth in professional life down the road.”
After years of clinical interviews and teaching experiments, Sarama came to such conclusions. To this day, however, there remains a gap between teachers and students when it comes to fully grasping math at this early of an age.
Sarama went on to critique the Common Core States Standards Initiative. It is a US education platform developed in 2010 that stressed the importance of language arts and mathematics in K-12 grades. The system is divided into levels depending on a child’s grade and sets a standard for what children should be learning at a given grade level.
The problem with this methodology, however, which Sarama continuously stressed, was a lack of depth.
“Often teachers tell their students ‘good job’ when they answer a math problem correctly. Instead we need to be asking ‘okay, well how did you know that?’ Understanding how we get somewhere lets us grasp something fully, and is thus ultimately how we move forward,” said Sarama.
Sarama explained, that compared to most countries, the US is lacking in terms education. While we may believe our country is the best at everything, we actually came in 27th place in worldwide education programs. Singapore, on the other hand, topped the list in math, science and English. This is because many of their schools focus on quality of understanding, rather than exposure to a given quantity of material.
It was time to shake the system. Sarama and a handful of her collegaues went on to develop a program known as “Building Blocks.” Sarama and her colleague, Douglas H. Clements worked to develop a process of learning that integrates math into everyday activity.
Instead of nap time, children would instead engage in a “marketplace” where kids could buy and sell certain toys, play with them, and affiliate numbers with their characteristics.
“Children will count the number of sides on a rhombus, instead of just naming the shape. They’ll show how many fingers and toes a doll has, or how many pennies were needed to play with a given toy,” said Sarama.
For Sarama, it’s a matter of asking the real questions with numbers. Instead of asking what seven plus two is, how do you know seven plus two is nine?
After implementing such processes in a selected number of Boston preschools, Sarama illustrated her findings to the crowd. Proficiency in math was dramatically higher among students that had gone through Sarama’s program, rather than those that were solely exposed to common core.
This program has done far more than just increase math understanding in young children. It has seemingly become just as instructive for teachers as it has been for students.
“Child gain motivates teachers to productively face challenges. As teachers do face them successfully, teachers become more motivated. Implementing this kind of environment is an outlet for success in our children and future generations,” claimed Sarama.
The MFJS Reporter -- Winter 2020 T-R 