Teaching of Mathematics in Grades VII, VIII, and IX

Abstract

TWO COMPREHENSIVE OUTLINES of the work for Grades VII, VIII, and IX were given in the Fifteenth Yearbook (45). The work for Grades VII and VIII is predominantly arithmetic. The work in the ninth grade in one curriculum plan is general mathematics with emphasis on the social applications of number. In the other plan the core of the curriculum is algebra, with material from arithmetic, graphic representation, and trigonometry. McCamey (36) analyzed fifty-three city and state courses of study published since 1929 to determine the type of mathematics offered in the ninth grade. She found that two-thirds of the courses were conventional and one-third mathematics; nine cases were both types. Half of the courses gave general objectives but did not tell how these objectives were obtained. In general, ninth-grade mathematics was predominantly algebra. Even in reorganized courses, more algebra was taught than all of the other subjects combined. Turner (59) sought to ascertain by means of a questionnaire (a) what factors affect pupils' liking for mathematics; (b) what types of mathematics are of most value for carrying on different activities; and (c) how time allotments for various topics compare with the use and value of those topics in the lives of the pupils. Turner concluded that much of the subjectmatter of the eighth-grade course in mathematics is beyond the understanding of the average pupil and that it appears in the curriculum because of faith in some vague and indefinite future use. Georges (23), Jahn (31), and Murray and Ritchie (42) set forth objectives for junior high-school mathematics. Drake (18) reported a project in teaching statistics in the ninth grade. He found that it is feasible to teach concepts of central tendency and percentiles. Mallory (38) tested the relative difficulty of certain topics in mathematics for the slow-moving pupil at the ninth-grade level. The topics included in the curriculum which he constructed were selected not with a view to satisfactory pupil achievement but simply to determine which types of work most interested the pupils, and which algebra and intuitive geometry types they could do most successfully. In general he found that pupils with low IQ's were deficient in arithmetic computation. Low IQ did not prove a handicap in most intuitive geometry but it was a handicap in situations which called for more precise reasoning and generalization. Simple equations and signed numbers were easily learned in algebra, but making and evaluating formulas and using general numbers