How did children reconcile school methods and parents’ methods of solving mathematics problems?
The study found that children reacted differently when confronted with differences between home and school strategies for solving arithmetic problems. One Pakistani child who had been taught how to do long division by her parents found that her teacher’s method was different. However, she kept the two methods separate, using her dad’s approach at home, and her teacher’s approach at school. She did not discuss with her teacher the alternative approach she used at home, and told the researchers that she did find alternating between the two approaches confusing. Many of the children’s comments, however, revealed that they attached a higher value to the school strategies than to those of their parents. Even in cases where they could see that both approaches produced the same answer, they regarded the school approach as the ‘proper way’: “The proper way’s most probably teacher’s way but the more understandable way is most probably my dad’s way because it’s the same sort of way, it gets the
