Working environment versus academic setting: Indian study reveals distinct mathematics competencies among children in their jobs compared to schoolwork.
In the bustling Indian streets, you'd find children working in retail markets swiftly handling transactions with nary a pause, displaying impressive math skills that defeats most adults. However, a recent study suggests these same kids struggle with the same math problems when taught in school. This holds true even when these students have attended up to the 8th grade.
Shockingly, Indian students still attending school fare better on academically-taught math problems, but often fail at the practical math problems encountered in marketplaces. This peculiar disparity raises questions about creating a more comprehensive understanding of mathematics for both types of students.
"The school kids, they do worse when you go from an abstract problem to a concrete problem," says Esther Duflo, an MIT economist and co-author of the study. On the other hand, market kids perform worse on abstract, academic math problems.
Abhijit Banerjee, another co-author of the study, adds, "The one [market skills] doesn't translate into the other."
The study, titled "Children's arithmetic skills do not transfer between applied and academic math," is published in Nature. The authors include Abhijit Banerjee, Swati Bhattacharjee, Raghabendra Chattopadhyay, Esther Duflo, Alejandro J. Ganimian, Kailash Rajaha, and Elizabeth S. Spelke.
Duflo and Banerjee, who shared the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2019, are also co-founders of MIT's Jameel Abdul Latif Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), a renowned development economics research group.
The research consisted of three data-collection exercises with embedded experiments. The first shows that 201 kids working in markets in Kolkata are skilled calculators. However, when tested with standardized Indian national math tests, only 54 percent could correctly complete two-digit subtraction problems, and just 32 percent could divide a three-digit number by a one-digit number.
The subsequent studies conducted in Delhi found similar results. While market kids possess a knack for practical math, only 15 percent of the working kids were at average proficiency in math. On the contrary, non-market kids fared poorly in market-math problems, even though they excelled at pencil-and-paper math problems.
To delve deeper, the researchers conducted a series of experiments, comparing the performances of "market" and "school" kids on various math problems in varying conditions. Market kids shone in market transactions, answering correctly 85 percent of the time. Meanwhile, their non-working counterparts struggled, answering only 10 percent of questions correctly under limited time and without aids.
It appears there's a disconnect between the intuitive and formal math ways that market kids and school kids utilize to solve problems. Market kids seem to excel at base-10 problems, using rounding well and relying on their innate problem-solving skills. On the other hand, school kids can handle formal methods of division, subtraction, and more with precision, yet struggle to apply these skills to practical scenarios.
The findings elucidate that developing practical skills alone may not suffice in the long run. Both market kids and school kids would benefit from an education that bolsters their academic math skills as well, with the ultimate goal of earning a high school degree or beyond.
Banerjee believes that helping students reason their way to an approximation of the correct answer could be a valuable approach to understanding math better. Duflo adds that teachers should not be blamed for the current situation, as they are bound by strict curricula and methods, leaving room for investigation of alternate methods to bridge the math divide.
Currently, the research team is exploring possible modifications to classroom curricula, particularly incorporating practical applications, interdisciplinary learning, and offering multiple math tracks, to help students become well-rounded in both academic and practical math scenarios. The study underscores the importance of educational systems that bridge the gap between intuitive and formal mathematics for India's youth.
- The study, titled "Children's arithmetic skills do not transfer between applied and academic math," suggests that market kids excel at practical math but struggle with academic math.
- Abhijit Banerjee, a co-author of the study, asserts that the skills gained from the market environment do not translate into academic math proficiency.
- Esther Duflo, another co-author, explains that school kids perform worse on concrete problems compared to abstract ones, while the opposite is true for market kids.
- The research team, including Duflo and Banerjee who shared the Nobel Prize in Economics, suggests that students would benefit from an education that strengthens both academic and practical math skills.
- The authors of the study propose modifications to the classroom curriculum, such as incorporating practical applications, interdisciplinary learning, and offering multiple math tracks to bridge the gap between intuitive and formal mathematics.
- The findings of the study emphasize the importance of education and self-development that encourages personal growth, mental development, and learning, particularly in the area of mathematics for India's youth.
