Math Instruction Will Add a New Dimension Soon : Education: Texts in many local schools will emphasize concepts over calculations. Some welcome the changes, others have concerns.

For decades, elementary mathematics consisted of the basics: two plus two equals four, 10 minus seven equals three--and anything multiplied by zero equals zero.

But starting this fall, math instruction in some Ventura County classrooms will take a dramatic philosophical turn, and according to new state-approved textbooks, two plus two won’t necessarily have to equal four.

A decade-long effort to reform how math is taught in California public schools will reach the classroom in September when teachers introduce new math materials that emphasize concepts over calculations and problem-solving over traditional drills.

Educators say the new approach to math instruction will foster critical thinking and give students a deeper understanding of math concepts. They say the new framework will better prepare young people for a global job market where math skills are essential.

“The kinds of problems that we are facing now are more sophisticated than two plus two,” said Diana Rigby, curriculum director for the Ventura County superintendent of schools office.

“Traditional math expertise has focused on computations,” Rigby said. “But in the real world, computations are not enough.”

Some teachers have embraced the reform, which has been described as one of the most dramatic changes in math instruction in decades. But others worry that the new approach strays from math fundamentals.

Some teachers are unfamiliar with new textbooks, and uncomfortable altering their teaching style to accommodate what some educators say is just another educational fad.

“It is something that, six years from now we will say, ‘Maybe we went too far,’ ” said James Azevedo, a sixth-grade teacher in Thousand Oaks. “You have to have a balance.”

Linda Coultas, a fifth-grade teacher in Ojai, said her district is approaching the math reform with caution.

“I think everybody is looking at it with a little trepidation,” she said. “We are kind of taking it slow.”

This spring, teachers across Ventura County are piloting new math materials in their classrooms to determine which texts they want to adopt.

Every eight years, school districts select new textbooks and other materials for academic subjects from a state-approved list. Adoption of new mathematics material is scheduled for next fall, though districts can take an extra year to choose their texts.

Many school districts--including Simi Valley, Ventura, Ojai, Oak Park and Moorpark--have elected to wait until the 1996-97 school year to adopt math texts to give teachers ample time to adjust to them.

“I think any time you have new materials it causes everybody to take stock and do training,” Simi Valley Assistant Supt. Susan C. Parks said. “It has caused us to look intensely at our math programs.”

But at least one school district--Conejo Valley Unified--plans to introduce the new materials in classrooms next fall, delighting some teachers and confounding others.

“It’s going to take a lot of teacher training,” said Stasia Simrall, a teacher at Thousand Oaks’ Park Oaks School who is testing the new materials in her elementary classroom. “It is going to take years for teachers to get comfortable--that is going to be hard for a lot of people.”

The change may be difficult for some parents too. Those who recall pages of repetitive number columns in old math books might be surprised by the new texts, which often contain more words than numbers.

Instead of asking students to compute tedious multiplication or division problems, the texts pose complex word problems. Students, who will be encouraged to work in groups, must explain their answers, often in writing.

“It allows for students to do problem-solving,” said teacher Jane Traut, who is piloting the new math materials in her kindergarten class at Park Oaks School. “When you ask children to memorize facts too soon, it’s like asking them to memorize nonsense.”

Simrall is trying out a textbook called “Mathland” in her combination fifth- and sixth-grade class at Park Oaks this spring. So far, the Thousand Oaks students have responded well, she said.

“The kids absolutely love it,” she said. “They are using computations, but in an entirely different way.”

During a math lesson last week, for instance, Simrall asked her students to multiply one-third by one-sixth. Walking around the classroom, Simrall peered over her students’ shoulders as they worked the problem using colored tiles with fractions written on them.

“A lot of you had the answer, but you couldn’t explain it,” she told the students. “Who can show me how we know that (the answer) is one-eighteenth? A lot of you memorized that last year. But what does it mean?”

The students responded by writing brief essays explaining how they computed the problem. Some said they like Simrall’s approach to math.

“My other teachers, they would just assign work out of the book,” 10-year-old Jon Solomon said. “But here, she explains it, using the overhead (projector), tiles. . . . It works a lot better.”

But next door, Azevedo has been teaching math from a more traditional standpoint. Instead of offering long word problems or asking for written explanations, his class of sixth-graders usually performs computations--a teaching method he enjoys and believes effectively teaches children math.

“Math doesn’t change in my mind,” he said.

Simrall said teachers just need time to adjust to the new approach. “Everyone is afraid of something new and change is scary,” she said. “But you have got to be willing to take a risk.”

But the risk is great, Azevedo said. Test scores indicating the success or failure of the new teaching approach will not be known for years, he said.

“Were not going to know for six to eight years and that’s a huge gamble,” he said. “In the mainstream, I don’t think kids are going to benefit.”

Some educators say California’s dismal scores on nationwide tests, which have ranked near the bottom nationwide, are reason alone to overhaul how math is taught.

But even top state officials are questioning whether reforms are the answer. Last week, state schools chief Delaine Eastin said she plans to meet with educators to devise a “strategic battle plan” to overhaul the state’s math and reading instruction.

In the meantime, the Conejo district is moving forward with its plans for adopting the curriculum, and other districts expect to follow suit.

In the Ventura Unified district, officials created a math adoption committee made up of teachers, parents and administrators to study the new materials. But it will be next January before it goes to the school board for approval of the changes.

“We’ve perused them all,” said Sheri Willebrand, a math and science specialist for the Ventura Unified district. Willebrand served on the state committee that reviewed the materials and is a proponent of them.

“What we have been doing is teaching mathematics for a factory society,” she said. “Yet the world we are living in is much different, an information age as opposed to an industrial society.”

The reform, which some critics have described as the “new-new math” after the 1960s experiment in abstract math instruction, is needed to prepare students for a world reliant on technology and complex math concepts, Willebrand said. “Other countries are way ahead of us,” she said.

But Coultas, the fifth-grade teacher in Ojai, said she taught in Australia for a year and saw the results of math reform there. She said the new approach embraced by that country often neglected basic skills--a major concern of parents and teachers in California.

“I saw Australia do that and they left behind a lot of the basics,” she said. “I think we need to be cautious.”

That is what Conejo Valley Unified officials say they are doing. Assistant Supt. Richard Simpson said the way math is taught in Thousand Oaks schools will not undergo any radical changes because the district is maintaining a strong emphasis on basic skills.

“We are going to take a more traditional approach,” he said. “It won’t be as dramatic as it will be in some places.”

Although Thousand Oaks won’t adopt the materials until May or June, the prospect of change has already triggered angry responses from some parents and school board members.

While reviewing a lengthy report Thursday detailing the district’s math philosophy, Conejo Trustee Mildred Lynch challenged a portion of the district’s new guidelines, which read in part: “Some problems also should be open-ended with more than one right answer.”

“I don’t think that is any way to teach anything,” Lynch said. “I am entirely opposed to this.”

Calling the new books “fuzzy feel-good texts,” parent Charles Rittenburg said he wants the district to keep a solid curriculum based on fundamentals.

“I’d like to stick with teaching hard math skills,” he said.

But proponents of the new materials, including about 10 teachers and principals at the meeting, urged parents and board members to give the reform a chance.

“If we are just going to teach division and multiplication and addition and subtraction over and over again, and that’s good instruction, frankly, I’m not interested,” said Mike Waters, principal of Colina Middle School.

“Change,” he urged the trustees, “in a very slow manner.”