Teaching/learning multiplication in Japan -
Workshop presented by Keiko Hino, Hisae Kato and Hiraku Ichikawa, Utsunomiya University, Hyogo University of Teacher Education, Miyagi University of Education.
Abstract
Early years (5 to 7 years) and middle years (8 to 11 years)
In this workshop, we will introduce the importance in Japan of teaching multiplication using problems from textbooks and other resources. We want to hear from you about teaching multiplication in New Zealand, and to discuss various possibilities for fostering children's understanding and thinking.
One of the important goals of teaching multiplication in Japan is how to enrich children’s understanding of multiplication as a powerful tool of proportional reasoning.
- In the Japanese curriculum, we introduce multiplication of whole numbers in the second grade. Multiplication is treated not only as a simplified form of addition but also as a representation of one part, several parts, and times.
- In the third grade, children deepen their understanding through the multiplication of two or three-digit numbers, calculation using algorithms in column form, and the properties of multiplication.
- In the fourth and later grades, multiplication of whole numbers expands to the multiplication of decimals and fractions.
In the workshop, we will present several problems from Japanese textbooks and other resources to solve together, and experience the ways of how multiplication is taught in Japan. We will also show how they are used in the classroom and what the reactions from children are.
We would also like to get feedback from participant teachers concerning those problems, problems used to teach multiplication in the classrooms in New Zealand, children’s realities, and the points of teaching multiplication.
We hope these elicitations and comparisons inspire wider perspectives, in both of us, for fostering understanding of multiplication in children and their thinking.