Posts Tagged ‘About’
What Does Gladwell Say About Times Tables
Posted by Parkzone Corsair in Memory on December 10th, 2010
Malcolm Gladwell is an author and journalist. He is best known for his several bestselling books including; The Tipping Point and Outliers. Amazingly he has a lesson for parents in regard to times tables.
Gladwell has written several books including ‘Outliers’ which focuses on what makes people a success.
In this article we shall focus on what makes children a success in maths and the times tables.
Gladwell’s view is that a person’s upbringing and circumstances have a major impact on their abilities rather then their inborn qualities.
So, what insights can we take with respect to someone’s background and the learning of times tables for children?
Well, he compares the number systems of Western and Eastern countries and comes to a startling conclusion.
The number systems are very different and affect how easily children learn maths.
For example the number system in English is highly irregular. This is not the case for countries such as China, Japan and Korea. They have a logical counting system.
Look at the following to get some sene of this;
In Engish speaking countries the number 11 is identified by saying eleven, 12 by saying twelve, 13 by saying thirteen. 20 is twenty, 22 is twenty two, 24 is said as twenty four. In Eastern nations these numbers are expressed as ten one (10), ten two (12), ten three (13), two tens two, two (22), and two tens four (24).
Do you see the difference? What would a number such as forty seven be? The answer following the Eastern method is four tens seven. Easy and in fact much easier and more logical than the Western method.
A consequence of this situation is the Eastern children learn to count properly much earlier than those from the West.
Can this be shown to be the case? One simple fact – American children learn to count to 15 on average by the age of four. By the age of four Eastern based children using the Eastern number system can count to ……. 40. What a difference.
The Eastern number system makes addition and subtraction much easier than in the West.
The result of all this is that Eastern children tend to have a much more positive experience and therefore attitude to maths than Western children.
Because the number system makes it easier to follow, Eastern children can find the patterns in maths.
Eastern children can therefore understand earlier in age what is happening in a maths problem than Western children.
It will therefore come as no surprise to learn that Western children learn the times tables later than Eastern children.
The amazing thing is this. Even though a Western child has a disadvantage in numbers compared to an Eastern child the balance in learning times tables can be hugely addressed.
The answer is pretty easy and involves the use of colourful images to embed the times tables and their answers in your children’s minds so that they remember the them esily.
This improves maths and times tables learning by focusing the learning on use of memory rather than having to learn numbers by rote. It is what the world memory champions do.
Images and location are two key ingredients to learning times tables really well.
7 Things You Need To Know About Marketing And Pr-Ing To Students
Posted by Parkzone Corsair in Memory on December 3rd, 2010
1. Don’t make assumptions
It is easy to pigeonhole the UK Student population following years of stereotyping and spoofing via modern media. The common assumption is that a typical student:
* is aged eighteen and straight out of school
* follows a distinctly “grunge” dress code
* is lazy and sponges off the government
* follows a strict diet of canned-goods on toast
* binge-consumes copious amounts of alcohol on a regular basis
* spends all their spare time in pubs and clubs However, whilst there will be some students who commit to this list religiously, not all students are the same, and their interests, hobbies and lifestyles as individuals differ tremendously, and these common presumptions are often inaccurate.
For example:
* With regards to age, not all students go into higher education straight out of school. For example, students over the age of thirty make up a third of the student body at Oxford Brookes University alone (http://www.brookes.ac.uk/facts/mature_students). Understandably, there is a huge leap between what appeals to a teenager compared to that of a person in their thirties. Therefore, promotion which involves free entry to clubs or free booze might not be of interest to the slightly more wizened scholar.
* Fashion seems to be high on the agenda nowadays for modern students. The days of getting away with being as scruffy as possible are entering their final death rattle, with websites like ASOS proving popular with young people, and student discount offered at retailers like New Look. So, promotion via platforms which largely attract the “grunge” crowd, such as music festivals, might not have the impact you’d expect.
* It is a myth that students are spongers. Every UK citizen is entitled to three years-worth of student funding via the Student Loans Company. That money is there for the taking if you are climbing the education ladder, but it isn’t much in the grand scheme of things and, if you live away from home to study, doesn’t stretch very far. Most students are forced to hold down a part-time job alongside studying full-time – quite a feat considering the amount of coursework required of them, and the tight deadlines which must be met. Therefore, students are not always lazy, and they do have money to spend, but they will want it to stretch as far as possible, because they work hard for the little they have.
* Most of the money students accrue will be spent on food. Most discussion forums suggest that an average student spends around £25-£30 per-week on groceries. That’s £100-£120 per month, which is a lot when you have to pay rent, utilities, and buy books for study. Therefore, promotion incorporating discounted supermarket shopping would reach a wide student audience.
* Alcohol consumption amongst students is high, and most universities boast pub and club facilities with subsidized bar pricing. Going back to the issue of age, this will not appeal to all students, as mature students may feel that part of their lives has been done to death. Socially, students spend a lot of their time at the computer, in the library, at the cinema, or shopping – just as much, if not more, than being in a pub or a club. The best approach is to fully research the age range you are playing to, and create ideas which people of all ages will find alluring. Bear in mind student habits and routines based on fact and not assumption, and you will be ten steps ahead of the competition.
2. Fresher’s Fairs and freebies
A great way for students to get familiar with your brand is the Fresher’s Fair. Held on-campus during the week that students register with their university, these events often have rows and rows of stalls and stands, set up by local businesses who wish to capitalise on the population of students new to the area at that time of year.
Often, students will be given a bag to fill with the many flyers, business cards, vouchers and freebies that these companies are eager to hand out. Flyers and leaflets are light and easy to carry, and a student at an event like this will find these easy to slip into their carrier bag of goodies.
However, what the students really look for are stalls which are giving away free items, such as sweets, sample groceries, and promotional items like
