Innumerate Britain: Recent #Prospect article about how bad numeracy is in the UK, written by Josh Lowe. Unfortunately the missing key to numeracy was not mentioned – the ability to use mental imagery to do mental arithmetic. There is no other way to do mental maths and developing this skill is almost entirely ignored by the education system. People who are good at maths naturally use these skills probably without realising it, it is an unconscious habit.
Read the whole article here:
Prime Minister David Cameron watches as Tino Muchirawehondo, 15, solves a problem in her year 11 maths class in Cedar Mount high school in Gorton, Manchester.
http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/features/innumerate-britain
School’s minister Nick Gibb, talks about bringing UK skills in line with those in Shanghai, but there is no mention of the fact that if you are to do this, children must have good mental images. Children growing up with languages such as Cantonese and Mandarin, used in Shanghai will ensure that children have good mental images. We need to teach our children in the UK about how to use mental images for all aspects of learning, if we want them to excel.
We also need to educate Nick Gibb and David Cameron about this missing link in numeracy.
Olivehickmott 