There is a very good op-ed in today’s NP by Dr. Philip Sullivan: Discovery Learning is Failing Our Children

http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/philip-sullivan-discovery-learning-is-failing-our-children

What does the “guided discovery” part look like in Jump Math and is there a Teacher’s Guide? How is it different from a lesson?  Does the teacher determine if the particular skill has been “discovered” before moving on to the next skill?  We may be looking at sequential math on a more gentle learning curve taught by the teacher and then “discovered” or learned by the student.
Students frequently have a greater desire to finish the workbook than learn the skills.  Someone needs to rein them in, surely.

Christina the teacher guides are designed so that the teacher is always involved in ensuring each child learns the task at hand before moving on.  There are many different levels the teacher can use in the classroom to address the various levels of learning for the students.  The whole idea of guided discovery is very appealing to teachers, and students, because they are allowed to use various ways to help promote automaticity and understanding for each mathematical concept, but the teacher is directly involved in ensuring students learn the concept correctly.  They do not move on to a next concept until the task at hand is understood.

It’s a fabulous program, something that MB now has mandated as a provincial resource, thanks to the lobbying efforts of Dr. Craigen and Dr. Stokke at WISE Math.  In BC it is a provincial resource for children with learning disabilities only.  We are lobbying to get that changed so that it is a mandated resource for ALL students.

A couple more thoughts.  Although John Mighton has always been very consistent in his message about the effectiveness of guided discovery, I have yet to meet a supporter of IBL/DBL who also supports the JUMP Math resource.  Not only that, but some school Districts outright ban the resource because they support “Math Makes Sense” and consider the JUMP resource a threat, or a cult.  And I have heard of some teachers being transferred out of their schools for using this resource.  So although many proponents of IBL call for a “balanced approach”, this is a false claim. They do not like to use the same methods that JUMP uses to ensure kids have mastered their math facts, so they can go on to develop more critical ways to develop their understanding of math concepts.  Such as daily practice, using worksheets (or Smart boards), direct instruction involving the teacher, ensuring times tables and long division is mastered etc. etc…all methods which have been proven to be part of a successful methodology for a strong mathematical foundation.

And I will provide further proof of this thought process by linking to the shiny brand new math pamphlet our provincial math association came up with recently:  http://www.bcamt.ca/facts/  They plan on sharing their wealth of knowledge with teachers and parents in the upcoming school year, in conjunction with the rollout of the BCEd plan pilot project in some school districts!  Note the professors they cite in developing this pamphlet - Jo Boaler and Marilyn Burns.  Both are constructivists/proponents of pure discovery based learning.  Jo Boaler believes that memorizing times tables harms children.  So although the pamphlet, and the BCEd plan CLAIM to support a balanced approach, the evidence suggests otherwise.

If anyone requires proof that the discovery method in math teaching has failed our students, just ask the private tutors.

Through a volunteer tutoring program at the public libraries, I am currently teaching a Grade Three boy, son of a single mum from Eritrea (herself struggling to learn English). He presented me with a worksheet that required him to count backwards by threes from 42. I quickly discovered that he doesn’t know number facts like 5 + 4 = 9 or 8 – 3 = 5, and we’ve been working on basic addition and subtraction facts up to 10 ever since. All children are capable of mastering their basic number facts to 20 by the end of Grade Two if the school emphasizes this.

A glance at one authorized textbook, Math Makes Sense (Addison Wesley), highlights the problems: too little repetition drill, too many exploratory problems, and too many words.

Middle class parents can afford to pay for tutoring to compensate for this deficit in practice and drill. Poor immigrant parents can’t make head or tail out of the verbiage in the textbooks, and certainly can’t pay for tutors.

Today’s math ideologues pretend that they’re encouraging higher-level thinking, but without a solid foundation in number, children can’t reach higher levels. Discovery math reinforces the sharp divisions in our culture between the haves and the have-nots.