Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
Aarnout Brombacher

Creator

Aarnout Brombacher

It’s all in the process

Getting the right answer does not mean a child has understood how to do a sum

Don’t be fooled by tricks

When people experience mathematics, they feel empowered and capable.

Practice makes perfect

Practice makes perfect

Children need to repeat processes constantly so that their ideas mature from primitive to more sophisticated, writes <b>Aarnout Brombacher</b>.

Use maths skills or lose them

Use maths skills or lose them

Do not expect children to be able to do next year what they can do today if they don’t get a chance to practice what they learn.

Gymnastics of the mind

Mental arithmetic cannot be taught simply by asking questions.

Investigating relationships

Helping children to recognise patterns in maths and repeating exercises often leads to better problem-solving skills,writes <b>Aarnout Brombacher</b>.

Investigating the issue

Allowing children to be curious and to develop their skills results in mathematics becoming a sense-making and problem-solving activity.

Making a good start

<b>Aarnout Brombacher</b> emphasises the importance of establishing a new classroom culture.

Abstracts can’t be avoided

In the eighth column in his series, <b>Aarnout Brombacher</b> explains the important difference between real-life problems and abstracts.

Why are we doing this?

Children often ask this question about mathematics and the teacher’s answer should be that we need it to help us solve problems in our daily lives.

More about solving problems

<strong>Aarnout Brombacher</strong> presents the fifth in a series on teaching mathematics.

Problem solved

Trying to make young children less anxious about maths? Solving simple problems may be the answer, writes <b>Aarnout Brombacher</b>.

A helpful lifeskill

Mathematical literacy aims to develop more effective self-managing individuals, contributing workers, lifelong learners and critical citizens. With mathematical literacy we are…

Number crunching

Your bank sends you a letter offering you a chance to enrol in its "points" programme. For an annual fee of R180, you will earn one point for every R6 you spend on your credit…