Math Dislike – Installed or Natural?

The NORSMA conferences see math dislike and dyscalculia as, not installed, but residing in nature. And see arithmetic weakness coming from a weak concept of cardinality, which they see as organized in Line Numbers expected to be learned by heart. However, by telling 4 from 2 2s, preschool children show that all numbers have units thus consisting of Cardinal Numbers that do not add, and Counting Numbers that add if the units are the same.

Neglecting the child’s own number-language by insisting that numbers are a linear cardinality that can be added without considering units, may be what installs dislike and dyscalculia. To disappear, researching 1D Line Numbers should be replaced by researching the effect of accepting that children count totals in 2D Block Numbers.

The negative effect of installing dislike and dyscalculia is seen in the 2015 OECD report Improving Schools in Sweden: An OECD Perspective:

“PISA 2012, however, showed a stark decline in the performance of 15-year-old students with more than one out of four students not even achieving the baseline Level 2 in mathematics at which students begin to demonstrate competencies to actively participate in life.”
(oecd.org/edu/school/improving-schools-in-sweden-an-oecd-perspective.htm)

The MATHeCADEMY.net offers free online in-service teacher education based upon action learning or research papers on BundleCounting published at the ICME 2004-2012 (mathecademy.net/papers/icme-trilogy).

Seminars on how to cure Math Dislike can be held as  free 1day Skype seminars.

* Seminar invitation: Seminar on BundleCounting HowToCureMathDislike
* Seminar PowerPointPresentation: Curing Math Dislike
As pdf-file: Curing Math Dislike.pdf
* Seminar working material: Math Dislike Cured with flexible bundle numbers short version
* Full version: Math Dislike Cured with flexible bundle numbers
* Background paper:  Calculators in PreSchool and Special Needs education