The Elephant in the Classroom: Helping Children Learn and Love Maths

As a practising maths teacher I bought this book out of interest. The title had me 'hooked'.The traditional teaching techniques which helped me, and many like me, to become a chartered engineer come in for a lot of criticism. As such, I found myself tempted to dismiss all within.However, I kept reading, and found myself agreeing more and more with content.The following points made are without doubt truthful:-1) We do spend an enormous amount of time testing pupils, teachers and schools (with exam results).2) The pressure put upon schools (and hence teachers) to achieve exam results does make the classroom teacher 'teach the exam paper'.3) Not enough time is spent upon maths in a practical environment, in which the pupils have to analyse the everyday problems, plan out what needs to be done and produce the necessary maths to solve them.The book author advocates group work allowing pupils to communicate and compare techniques making the maths room more like a science laboratory. She does unfortunately not give the missing 'how to deal with pupils that do not want to work'.Despite my critical comments I found this book a thoroughly good read and look forward to trying out ideas and concepts within. As a person who seldom reads this type of work, this is praise indeed!

Not having a child currently in school and the fact that this book is several years out of date I cannot comment on what is currently happening in maths classrooms in the UK or the US. what I can say is that the content of this book came as a revelation to me. As someone who enjoyed the processes in maths but, due to dyslexia/dyscalculia could never remember the formula's so went up and down streams like a yo yo depending on which formulas I was remembering at any one time and who left school believing I was a maths failure. To this day I still can't remember my times tables. This book has reignited my wish to explore maths again. It is worth reading as a parent or teacher and to at least open up the debate that there may be alternatives to traditional teaching techniques which will suit some of your children or students, whatever their age. I came to this book as a result of a friend studying these techniques on a short course and then applying them to a small group of children she was tutoring. I was fascinated and wanted to learn more and this is a good introduction to what the techniques are and why they work. I do not believe one teaching technique will work for every student which is why it is so important for parents and teacher to remain open minded and be willing to consider alternatives to traditional methods. I had never come across this ethos before but I am now eager to explore it further; not just in maths but other subjects as well.

Really thought-provoking. I thought of myself as a traditionalist until I read this book. It all makes so much sense, particularly the bit about encouraging "smarter" children to talk about maths. Reminded me of when I studied economics, the mantra was "can you explain it to your granny?". If you haven't learned to explain something, you haven't mastered it.

I would recommend this book to any primary school teacher, head teacher or secondary school Maths department.It is a very readable explanation of why our Maths teaching is in such a mess at the moment. Bright children are not challenged enough and far too many children are afraid of maths (as are many primary school teachers).Jo Boaler obviously has a wealth of relevant knowledge gained over many years. She explains how to make maths more accessible to those children who don't understand the subject and cannot see its relevance to everyday life (often that's because it is not taught in context, and when relevant). Accepted practices such as 'setting' children for maths lessons are challenged (with good reason) and alternative approaches are cited.Unfortunately, in order to implement many of Ms.Boaler's concepts, there has to be great support by a school, which is why I recommend the book to all staff involved in Maths teaching. (If only I could get my son's secondary school Head of Maths to read it, my son would not be getting bored in his Maths lessons!)

This book explores the difference between real world maths and the maths we traditionally see in classrooms, looking at creating rich problems that really engage children and push for understadning rather than simply following a procedure set down by the teacher.As someone who was already eperimenting with problem-based learning and BLP, this book really challenged my practice further. You may or may not agree with everything that is said, but it will make you think! I totally recommend you give this a read if you are a parent or teacher or have anything else to do with children and maths!

A well written and engaging book. I found it really thought provoking regarding maths and the wider education system. Planning to use the book to help me to support my daughter's maths development .... A must for all parents that want to keep their children interested in maths in want ever career choice they make, it's not just about making kids maths fizzes. It's one of these rare books that has motived a change in me. Would highly recommend it

The Elephant in the Classroom is compulsory reading for all maths teachers, particularly those teaching the young or not so young pupils. My American educated grandchild who has just commenced teaching in a secondary school, was rather surprised at the lack of maths education the children had. "So boring" they said. She soon altered that. Now there is great interest in her classes, and I am sure that she has found Jo Boaler's comments most encouraging. This morning My grandchild said it was 'fantastic'. The Elephant in the Classroom: Helping Children Learn and Love Maths