Multi-cultural mathematics
Benedicte Bosrup
Center of education in Larvik
Norway
School of Norwegian language
Bucuresti
27 October
2006
Outline
• Introduction
• Multicultural mathematics
• Background
• Language and mathematics
• Parents as the main resource
• Summary
Who are we?
“Centrum” school for children and
youth
• Includes two primary-schools and
one lower secondary school:
- “Torstrand” and “Byskogen primary school”
- “Mesterfjellet lower secondary school”
”Center of education in Larvik”
•
•
”School of Norwegian language”
-
A school for immigrants and refugees who has to learn Norwegian and
Norwegian culture
-
Specially groups for mother and child for learning Norwegian together
-
Groups for youths 16-20 years where they can take their exams for
further studies
”The World champion”
-
A school for children of immigrants and refugees who just has arrived
to Norway
Our surroundings
Multicultural mathematics
Background
• International studies shows that students with a
minority language has lower score in
mathematics than other students with the
majority language.
• Parents with minority background has a
tendency to disappear from the activities at
school
Why?
• Language
• Cultural differences
• Fear
Language and mathematics
belongs to each other
Jim Cummins
• BICS
Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills
• CALP
Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency
What we need for understanding
mathematics are:
• Concepts
• Logical thinking
• Experiences
• Translating
• Capability
• Understanding
Communication in mathematics
Communication
in mathematics
• Abstractions
• Symbols
The practical way
• To see the connections
• To recognize what's famous
• To translate the language into a
mathematical language
What are the children doing of
mathematics?
• They count
• They make rules
• They compare
• They know what is fair and unfair
Ethno-mathematics
• Where did it all start?
• Pythagoras
• The Maya-peoples mathematics
Mathematics in all cultures
• Counting
• Games
• Hand-craft
• Cooking
Focus at school:
• Which countries are represented in the
class?
• How is the math in those countries?
• Children thinks it is very exciting to learn
perhaps math in Arabian.
Our thoughts
• Creating models in teaching children with two
languages.
• Establish good areas for planning and evaluation
in education of children from the minorities.
• Give the students and their parents pride of their
culture.
Parents
as the
main resource
In our schools we want to:
• Educate the parents so they can be able
to help their children by:
– Motivating and being important supporters.
– Giving knowledge about how we teach at
school.
How?
• Cooperate school and family.
• Training mathematics in the mother
tongue.
• Change some assumptions for how we
teach in mathematics.
Homework
International meeting for parents
• We invite all the parents with minority
background at our schools to a meeting.
Cooperating
Family
School
Culture
Identity
Organize supporters in homework:
• Each school has their own homework
group
• Managed by a professional homework
teacher and voluntary helpers
The school and the teachers
• They need to cooperate and have the
child and it’s family in focus
Cooperation at school
Math-teacher
Teacher
in
second language
Double-lingual
teacher
Our project
Educating
parents in how to help
children with
mathematics
Let the
parents
be involved
and included
in the school
Multicultural
mathematics
Homework
project
and serving
of a warm meal
Steering Committee
Educating
bilingual
teachers
in
how to
teach
mathematics
Professional
homeworkgroups
at school
Project group
with teachers in mother
tongue, math, second language
from each school and the project leader
Our intension
• Better mathematical understanding for
bilingual children
• Consciousness for the parents in how they
can help and support their children
• To create a good dialog between family
and school about the child's level
Our intensions for the teachers:
• Better education of teachers in how to
teach in a bilingual perspective
– second language
– mother tongue
– mathematics
• How to teach mathematics with a
multicultural perspective
Multi-cultural mathematics
Summary
• Vision
– Every child has the right of good education
despite of their parents ethnicity, economy,
education or culture
• Our strategy:
– Develop our experiences with other schools
– Develop the pride and respect for other
cultures
Thank you
for
listening!
[email protected]
Bucuresti 27 October 2006