EDMONTON – An Alberta mother continues to push the education minister to change the current math curriculum to focus on basic fundamentals.
Nhung Tran-Davies feels schools are teaching math in a convoluted way, and wants the province to speed up plans to reform the curriculum.
READ MORE: Parents across Canada fight for return to traditional math lessons
She has created a petition that now has nearly 10,000 names on it.
“Despite the promise of creating a deeper understanding of mathematical calculations, the multiple convoluted and inefficient strategies that our students are subjected to are in fact leading to a weakened understanding of the mathematics, a poorer grasp of the basic skills, and a greater aversion to the entire subject matter,” said Tran-Davies on Tuesday.
The group is now working with the official opposition to get its point across. Tran-Davies was part of a news conference hosted by the Wildrose Party.
“The bottom line is this: Alberta students are graduating from our education system less prepared for the real world and less prepared for what lies in front of them, and it’s because Alberta Education is trumpeting this flawed method of teaching,” said education critic Bruce McAllister.
He was joined by several of the petitioners, including Tran-Davies, and several former teachers.
“What is being taught now is not resonating,” stressed McAllister.
“They are demanding that we go back to the basic fundamentals in the curriculum before we lose even one more group of students.”
The group says it has yet to meet with Education Minister Jeff Johnson himself.
READ MORE: Math petition presented to Alberta education officials
“Today, we ask that he – as a parent wanting the best for his children – will show us that he truly does care for all our children by committing to personally meeting with us as soon as possible,” said Tran-Davies.
Johnson said members of his staff have met with Tran-Davies on three occasions.
“I share some of the concerns, which is one of the reasons that we’re doing a curriculum redesign and we’re sending that out to the field and having parents and teachers on the ground, and school boards involved and leading that.”
“I think it’s important that parents are engaged and I commend the leader of the petition for putting that together.”
Tran-Davies says those previous meetings with government officials were not productive.
“We realize now that they were just listening sessions, that there has been no intent for translating the listening to actions to make the necessary amendments for our children.”
She also says time is of the essence, and wants Johnson to make changes to the current curriculum soon.
“We are calling Education Minister Jeff Johnson to task with a petition to have the ministry urgently improve the K-12 new math curriculum by reemphasizing and refocusing on the importance of acquiring and mastering the basic math skills through the conventional methodologies.”
(Above: Education Minister Jeff Johnson talks about Alberta’s curriculum redesign)
Johnson says she has asked to have several changes implemented by September.
“Which is not something we can do, but we can look very carefully at what she’s asking us to do, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
He adds that there is incorrect information circulating regarding the upcoming curriculum redesign of all subjects.
“There’s an incredible amount of misinformation out there.”
“There is no desire in Alberta to move to some discovery based model where I’ve read that the teacher is the partner and the student is completely self-directed in their learning. That’s rubbish.”
In an interview on the Global Edmonton Early News, he said the curriculum redesign will focus on numeracy and literacy in all subjects and will be developed by through consortiums of school boards, parent groups, business community, and teachers across the province.
READ MORE: Education minister touts Alberta’s curriculum redesign
“We’re going to take the best of what we’ve got, we’re going to take the best practices from around the world, we’re going to implement the things that employers and parents and educators are telling us we need to do, and we’re going to make our great system even better,” he said Tuesday.
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