Non-Cognitive Skills in US and Kenyan Mathematics Curriculum

Abstract

Is mathematics taught in one country different from another one? How do concepts such as division, multiplication or facts like pi or mathematical conventions such PEMDAS/BODMAS compare from one country to another? True that mathematical content is the same regardless of the global location. The context and method used to present the concepts may vary from one place to another but the idea and notion stays the same. Aside from content, there are other learning found in mathematics classrooms that are not cognitive-oriented but very crucial and fundamental in preparing students to thrive as citizens of their nation and beyond. This presentation highlights the non-cognitive skill sets or soft skills, found in the US and in Kenyan math curricula—talk describes the attributes of the soft skills found in both countries as well as compares and contrasts these curricula. Presently, Kenya is on its fifth year of implementing competency-based curriculum where one of its main foci is on building capacity in communication and collaboration, self-efficacy, critical thinking and problem solving, creativity and imagination, citizenship, digital literacy, and learning to learn. The discussion explores how these seven non-content based core competencies look like in mathematics classrooms plus their implications in education. On the other hand, currently several US States have adapted the Common Core mathematics, which has two types of standards; that is, the mathematical content standards and standards for mathematical practice (SMP). The SMP are soft skills and core practices that Pre-K up to grade 12 students must be well versed in by the time they move to tertiary education. There are eight SMPs, which the presentation will focus on. The SMPs include: make sense of problems and persevere in solving them; reason abstractly and quantitatively; construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others; model with mathematics; use appropriate tools strategically; attend to precision; look for and make use of structure and look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning. The presentation shades light on these important soft skills, by making them more explicit. Note that the non-cognitive skillsets embedded in math classrooms carries more significant weight of learning; way much more than mere memorizing of procedural routine of finding an answer to a math problem. For instance, the aftermath of solving a math problem to its end to a solution set, is crucial since the ensuing attributes of endurance, determination and resiliency are examples of non-cognitive skill sets that will carry one outside the mathematics classroom, or in problem solving real life opportunities and challenges or in service to a country.