Publish at January 23 2024 Updated January 23 2024
In an ever-changing world, education must adapt to prepare children for the challenges of the 21st century. In a society where calculators and digital technologies are ubiquitous, mathematics education faces new challenges. One of these challenges concerns the acquisition of sound mathematical skills. In this article, I encourage educational decision-makers and teachers not to overlook culturally relevant solutions for teaching/learning mathematics. The soroban, also known as theabacus, is one of the factors explaining the high performance of Asians in mathematics, and its use should be further democratized throughout the world, and especially in Africa.
In today's digital age, children are exposed to digital technologies and calculators at an early age, which can limit their understanding of fundamental mathematical concepts. In addition, studies show that excessive use of technology can negatively affect children's ability to perform mental calculations and conceptualize more complex mathematical operations. As a result, many educators and researchers recognize the need to reintroduce more traditional learning methods to reinforce basic mathematical skills.
An ancestral solution of contemporary utility
The soroban, or Japanese abacus, has been used for centuries in Asian cultures, and is one of the reasons for the high performance of Asian countries in PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment). The PISA 2022 report reveals that the highest levels in mathematics are all from Asian countries: Singapore, Macau, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan. The lowest-performing countries are Cambodia, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Guatemala.
Numerous studies have demonstrated that the use of soroban can lead to a significant improvement in mental arithmetic skills, calculation speed and accuracy of results. For example, this study revealed that students using soroban demonstrated a 30% improvement in their mental arithmetic speed. As a result, soroban is gradually being used in several countries for mathematics teaching purposes, and initiatives have also been observed in the USA, Brazil and India.
Soroban has a number of pedagogical advantages over contemporary teaching methods:
YouTube video on calculating with a soroban
The soroban is made up of beads manipulated on rods. Manipulating the soroban's beads requires sustained attention, promoting greater focus and deeper absorption of mathematical concepts. This method of use involves learning positional decimal numeration and basic mathematical operations. This approach reinforces understanding of fundamental mathematical concepts and promotes better visualization of operations, leading to stronger mathematical skills.
Mathematics, although a fascinating discipline, is subject to prejudice and sometimes rejection by young people in Africa[1]. When Christophe Fotso, a Cameroonian math teacher, corrected the maths papers of 3,000 students taking the Brevet d'étude du premier cycle (BEPC) exam, he found that fewer than 100 papers scored 10 out of 20 or higher.
This led him to question the factors behind this poor performance: "What do math teachers say to children in class, and what explains such a high failure rate? Is it the content? Teaching methods?
These questions led him to research mathematics teaching-learning practices in Africa and make proposals for improvement. Among the proposals suggested, I think the introduction of soroban would be of added value for the following reasons:
Finally, introducing soroban will enhance and preserve traditional cultural practices, offering an additional dimension to learning mathematics. Indeed, it is necessary to adopt an ethnocentric approach to teaching mathematics, as we naturally learn from the objects, tools and methods that are naturally present in the everyday environment. This is the case, for example, in Burkina Faso, where illiterate peasants from the Siamous ethnic group - studied by Kalifa Traoré and Souleymane Barry - have mathematical practices based on the construction of rectangular huts; and they propose an African approach to the didactics of mathematics. Mathematics is within everyone's reach, as long as each and every one of us pushes back our limits and pursues it with tenacity, efficiency and perseverance, in strict compliance with the principles of scientific reasoning.
Ultimately, the benefits of soroban in terms of concentration, mental calculation, understanding of mathematical concepts and accuracy are backed up by convincing studies and statistics. It is therefore imperative that educators and decision-makers in the field of education seriously consider the adoption of soroban as a complementary tool to provide children with a solid foundation in mathematics and strengthen their cognitive skills. By adopting soroban, we offer children an enriching and stimulating pedagogical approach to developing their mathematical skills, preparing them for tomorrow's mathematical challenges.
References
[1] This is partly the result of a historical oversight, given that Africa contributed greatly to the development of mathematical thought. Alexandria, the scientific and mathematical heartland of Greece, was on Egyptian soil. It was in Alexandria that Greek mathematics reached its apotheosis, and many of the greatest mathematicians in history came from Alexandria: Euclid, Ptolemy, Heron, Diophantus, etc. In addition, algebra and mathematics were developed in Alexandria. What's more, classical algebra, over 4,000 years old, also originated in ancient Egypt and Babylon. A better understanding of the contributions of Africans to the development of mathematics would help demystify mathematics for young Africans.
[2] Smith, David Eugene (1958). History of Mathematics. Dover Books on Mathematics. Vol. 2: Special Topics of Elementary Mathematics. Courier Dover Publications.
The challenges of teaching mathematics in basic education - Michèle Artigue - Unesco
https://www.apmep.fr/Les-defis-de-l-enseignement-des-9866
Abacus - Wikipedia
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abaque_(calculation)
Overview of the mathematics situation in Africa - David Békollè - Éditions science et bien commun
https://scienceetbiencommun.pressbooks.pub/mathematiqueafrique/chapter/apercu-de-la-situation-des-mathematiques-en-afrique-et-interpellation/
Challenges in mathematics and statistics teaching underpinned by student - lecturer expectations - Deepak Parashar - European Journal of Science and Mathematics Education
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1107657.pdf
Assessing the Challenges of Learning and Teaching of Mathematics in Second Cycle Institutions in Ghana
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Challenges-with-the-teaching-and-learning-of-mathematics_fig1_267567709
State rankings by student level in mathematics (PISA 2022) - Atlasocio.com
https://atlasocio.com/classements/education/pisa/classement-etats-par-niveau-mathematiques-pisa.php
Mathematics Learning Challenges and Difficulties: A Students' Perspective - David Wafula Waswa & Mowafaq Muhammed Al-kassab
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-99-0447-1_27
Children Do Much Better in Math When Music is Added to the Lesson: New Study
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/role-that-music-has-on-mathematics-achievement/
In Africa, mathematics must be made more practical" - Mouhamed Moustapha Fall - Szymon Jagiello
https://www.lepoint.fr/afrique/en-afrique-il-faut-rendre-les-mathematiques-plus-pratiques-21-04-2023-2517298_3826.php#11
General findings on mathematics teaching-learning practices and experimentation
https://scienceetbiencommun.pressbooks.pub/afriquemath/chapter/constats-generaux-sur-les-pratiques-denseignement-apprentissage-et-experimentation-des-mathematiques/
La problématique d'une voie africaine en didactique des mathématiques: vrais et faux enjeux - Kalifa Traoré - Souleymane Barry - https://emf.unige.ch/files/8014/5389/0085/EMF2006_GT3_Traore_Barry.pdf
The challenges of teaching mathematics in basic education
International Group of Experts on Science and Mathematics Education Policies, Paris, 2009 [4]
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000191776
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