The Cockcroft Report (1982) says:
Parents can exercise, even if unknowingly, a considerable influence on their children's attitudes towards mathematics. Encouragement to make use of mathematics during normal family activities, for example to weigh and measure, to use money for shopping and to play games which involve the use of dice or the keeping of scores, can assist children to develop familiarity with numbers and confidence in making use of them. However, in some cases parents can expect too little; "don't worry, dear, I could never understand mathematics at school either."
In education today parents and governors have an increasingly influential role to play. As teachers we need to be working with them, not pulling in the opposite direction.
In order to achieve this we must cooperate with each other to provide the best possible education for our pupils/children. One way to go about this is to set up various situations in which the parents and governors can also participate and help.
If your school, up to now, has not had a policy of inviting parents in to 'share', then one of the first steps will have to be to introduce these ideas to the parents.
Parents have the right to know what is happening at school and it is sensible to be clear and concise in communications with parents. Jargon is something to be avoided as it only leads to confusion and often gives the impression that the teachers are in fact trying to hide something.
Paired Mathematics is one of the suggestions for working with parents and has been a successful project promoted in Birmingham. It has promoted pairing not only with parents but also with peer groups and cross-phase. In all cases a bank of mathematical games has been set up that the children have then been encouraged to play with either parents, peers or older children. There have been many positive outcomes from this type of working. Not only does it encourage a positive attitude by all towards mathematics but it increases the understanding and communication of mathematics between all involved in the projects.
Careful planning is necessary if you are thinking of trying this type of project and if you require more information please contact the Mathematics Team at the Martineau Education Centre.
Another way of involving parents is to have an activity or workshop based parents' evening. This gives the staff a chance to display many of the types of activities that they frequently use within the classroom and it lets the parents see what the teachers are trying to achieve as well as to have a try at some of the activities for themselves.
The teaching of mathematics has changed, in most cases, since parents were at school and this type of involvement lets the parents have a flavour of mathematics as it is taught today. It is often a good idea to have some of the children also present demonstrating the activities and explaining them to their parents. If a child can explain it to a parent then that child has a fairly good grasp of the concepts behind the activity.
City of Birmingham - Mathematics Guidelines
Copyright © 1998 [BASS]. All rights reserved.