Supporting the transition to teaching mathematics in mother tongue: Lessons learned from Senegal

• In Event: Mathematics education in multilingual contexts – lessons from reflection on teacher professional development

Proposal

Learning in mother tongue improves children’s learning outcomes and, consequently, their overall academic performance (UNESCO, 2006, Awopetu, 2016). The international community has begun examining the cognitive and academic impact of learning mathematics in mother tongue. The findings (Toquero, 2011) suggest that children who do so achieve better results. Potential explanations include children’s ability to understand and grapple with rich mathematical problems (Chitera, 2010), and to explain their reasoning (Nkonde et al., 2018); teachers’ ability to focus on deepening children’s understanding of why mathematical operations or processes work (Toquero, 2010); and the ease with which teachers explain mathematical concepts in mother tongue (Nkonde et al., 2018 ; Chitera, 2010).

Although these research findings are compelling, there is little guidance on how to modify existing curricula and learning materials to acknowledge the differences inherent in teaching mathematics in mother tongue. This can include, for example, ensuring that mathematical concepts are presented and explored in ways that aligns with how they are expressed and used in the local culture and language or how to eventually transition to labeling and exploring these concepts in the second language, particularly when the second language expresses the concepts differently.

This presentation examines some of the challenges encountered and lessons learned from an initiative to develop mother tongue materials for three languages in Senegal. The presentation will be of interest to researchers and curriculum and instructional materials developers tasked with supporting the transition to teaching mathematics in mother tongue.

Author

• Norma Evans, Evans and Associates Educational Consulting Ltd.