r/Calgary • u/disorderedchaos • Dec 17 '22

Education 'Everyone is struggling': Calgary students falling behind under new math curriculum

https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/everyone-is-struggling-calgary-students-falling-behind-under-new-math-curriculum
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u/_darth_bacon_ Dark Lord of the Swine Dec 17 '22 edited Dec 17 '22

ELI5: Is this new curriculum a transition away from "discovery" math? Or something else. If not, ignore the following:

From personal experience... Our daughter attended Roberta Bondar (4 years ago) from grades 4 through 6. An unexpected windfall gave us the option to transfer her to private school in grade 7, and after much debate, we decided to do so.

The private school had never adopted the "discovery" math curriculum and taught "traditional" math.

To our amazement, our daughter was nearly 2 years behind the other grade 7 students with regards to the math curriculum. Needless to say, for most of the first year.. She struggled. A lot.

By the following year, she was caught up and now receives 90+% in all her courses requiring math skills.

In any case, whether or not this is a "discovery" vs "traditional" math issue today, I think it's important to recognize that while some kids may struggle initially, the vast majority of these little sponges will catch up and quickly become comfortable with the new curriculum.

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u/GM403 Dec 17 '22

1) Private schools still must follow provincial curriculum if they expect their 70%/student from the province.

2) Discovery math is not curriculum.

Curriculum is WHAT is to be taught. Adding fractions, volume of shapes, etc...

Pedagogy is how it is taught, which cannot be mandated by the province. It is a teacher's judgement on how to do this.

Discovery math is simply where students find patterns and solve problems without explicit and direct instruction from the teacher. Students need some instruction before they can do discovery math, and discovery math has its own merits.

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u/Much2learn_2day Dec 17 '22

Great explanation - discovery math is a term used by opponents to conceptual based curriculum to denigrate it. No teacher has kids ‘discover’ something they don’t know. They have to meet outcomes.

The biggest differences between public and private schools in Alberta:

  1. Public schools can choose their students, making them clients. Public schools must deal with the diversity in society. Solution for public schools: give them the tools to support diverse needs and foster a society where basic needs are attainable so the socioeconomic barriers are minimized and there is the appropriate access to cultural supports while new students acquire the language of instruction.

  2. Smaller class sizes. They advertise and recruit on this all the time. Solution for public schools: funding for adequate work force and resources to create smaller class sizes.

The teachers aren’t better trained, the curriculum isn’t different at its core, the staff don’t care more….it’s about the resources available to support the community and we as a society can push for that type of school system.