MIDEAST This Math Class May Figure Out Israel

[ConsAreLiars]

"The Universal Concept Mental Arithmetic System (UCMAS) was developed to use both sides of the brain," says Bari. "The analytical left side and the creative right side." Using a simple abacus, the UCMAS programme combines visual with textile {sic, tactile meant}, logical with theoretical. Citing age four to 12 as the prime period for brain development, UCMAS targets the potential to expand brain usage while young.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) 2010 report on the psycho-social situation of education in Gaza notes the effects of the Israeli attacks and siege on Gaza, saying 83 percent of students surveyed had difficulty concentrating in school; 48 percent had difficulty concentrating during home study; and 81 percent found it difficult to recall their class studies.

One of the benefits of the UCMAS programme is improved concentration, along with observation, imagination, memory, and creativity.

With eight centres in Gaza, there are now over 400 students around the Strip benefiting from this mental enhancement technique. But because of the cost of private school, thousands of bright students are missing their opportunity, crammed instead into overcrowded UN and governmental schools. According to the UN, as of 2009, roughly 88 percent of UN schools and 82 percent of government schools, unable to build new schools due to the siege on Gaza, have been forced to accommodate students in shifts.
More at http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52586
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Seems this approach is being found useful many places. Searched for UCMAS and scanned the top 100. Too bad this approach is available to and benefits (apparently) so few. Might be something those in ghettoized and brutalized communities in the US might want to try, if Arne Duncan and the PTB jackasses can be neutralized for a while.

[LeftishBrit]

1. In principle, education is a solution to many problems...

and 'weapons of maths instruction' much better than other sorts of weapons!

And there's lots of evidence that multi-sensory approaches are very useful in maths (and reading) instruction.

However, I am frustrated by the repetition of the simplistic myth that the right hemisphere is 'the creative hemisphere' and the left hemisphere 'the logical/analytical one'. In fact, the hemispheres, though they do show some specialization of skills, do not represent fundamentally different personalities or general cognitive styles. The biggest difference is that the left hemisphere is mainly responsible for language, and the right hemisphere for spatial abilities. The 'analytical vs creative' myth probably stems in part from the fact that *in visual perception* the left hemisphere is better in perceiving the features and details of a scene, and the right hemisphere better at perceiving it as an integrated whole. But both logic and creativity require both hemispheres operating together, and they are not as separate and specialized as is sometimes represented.

Nothing to do with I/P, but this is an area of my professional interest, and I get frustrated when it is constantly misrepresented in the media and in popular literature.

[Mosby]

2. Isn't "learning styles" theory something of a myth?

I've always been interested in neuropsychology and it seems like it's very difficult for researchers to develop good experimental methodologies in order to develop a theoretical model. They tend to rely on a hypothesis and leave it at that. Like the research on hemispheric specilization, how do they explain what happens with young people who undergo hemipherectomies and neuronal plasicity in general.

[ConsAreLiars]

3. I studied cognition at the grad level, but not much since, so I found this intriguing.

My unfinished thesis was about the different "types" of ways people understood/structured the world around them. I agree the L/R hemisphere "explanation" is more metaphor than physiology.

But Thom Hartmann (maybe via George Lakoff?) frequently talks about how political messages and personalities can be analyzed as primarily using visual, aural, touch, some 4th, modalities. "I see, I hear you, I get that...." My own view is that "types." a la Jung is a bit too simplistic, but the assumption that there is only one way of experiencing/comprehending reality is far worse.

In this context, the suggestion that a traumatized population may benefit more from the visual/tactile representation of how numbers work in addition to the rules-based rote-memorizing/practicing method seems credible, although I am with you in thinking most kids would benefit.

But I also posted this here to counter the all too common reflexive agit-prop demonization of Palestinians in Gaza, with some here posting posting every slur or accusation or negative typecasting to try to justify the atrocities committed against them by the master state.