We were desperate for a tool that would help. We were unable to tutor the number of students who required basic mathematical skills and understandings. Our issue was that many of our students had different understandings about these concepts and it became impossible to cover this range of understanding as a whole class. My colleagues and I had noticed a decline in basic mathematical skills. Having taught well over five hundred students to that point in my career allowed me to see longer term trends in student mathematical understanding. At the time I was in my eighteenth year of teaching mathematics from grades four through seven. In 2012, I was a junior high mathematics teacher. For teachers in both Canada and the United States, the question arises as to how we can ensure that students have a basic foundation of mathematics while learning conceptual skills. What happens is that children aren’t getting the skills to do more difficult math, so they’re struggling when they get to later concepts because math is very cumulative” (Canadian Press, 2013). The Canadian Press went on to interview Anna Stokke, an associate professor of mathematics at the University of Manitoba who summarized the issue by stating that “what’s required is a return to ‘pencil and paper math,’ which really requires practice. Findings of the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, suggested that Canadian students’ mathematics scores were decreasing (Canadian Press, 2013). In late 2013, the Canadian Press communicated that a report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development was published.
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