This week on Where Parents Talk radio on 105.9 The Region, host Lianne Castelino speaks to Larry Martinek, Chief Instructional Officer at Mathnasium, architect of Mathnasium method, teacher-trainer, consultant and father, about why elementary and high school math scores on standardized tests continue to trend downwards and how to address that decline.
LARRY MARTINEK
Chief Instructional Officer
Mathnasium
Teacher-Trainer
Author
Consultant
“At its root, one of the major problems is the lack of people going into into the math teaching profession. And so many kids are instructed in the US and in Canada by folks who are not credentialled math teachers. They’re doing a great job against all odds, but it’s not the same as having a person who dedicated their career to going to college, getting a degree in math in getting a credential and then going out and teaching.
That aha moment that I had was when I realized that what I’d been doing as a classroom teacher really didn’t work with with a young child who didn’t have any mathematical experience. One of the cornerstones of Mathnasium method is the amount of mental and verbal work we do with kids. Your math is often thought of pretty much as a written phenomenon. But the long before you do any writing, you’ve got to think math. And so our emphasis is initially on on the mental component and the visual component.”
