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Environment as the Third Teacher
A Wish for Classrooms That Honour the Hundred Languages Walk into a classroom—look at the walls, the light, the seating, the displays, and the materials within reach of children. Even before a teacher speaks, the environment has already begun teaching. Educational research across the world recognises that learning does not happen only through instruction. It…
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Characteristics of Primary Learners:
How Young Children Think, Learn, and Engage with the World To nurture deep thinkers, lifelong learners, compassionate community members, and creative future leaders, we must first understand how young children naturally experience the world. Primary learners come with an extraordinary hunger for learning. When educators align teaching practices with children’s inherent capacities, learning becomes joyful,…
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When Multiplication Tables Are Explained Wrong: Why “Two Threes Are Six” Is Not Enough
For generations, children have confidently recited multiplication tables: Two ones are twoTwo twos are fourTwo threes are six… Fluency improves. Answers come faster.Yet something deeply important is missing. Many students—and even adults—do not know what they are actually saying. This is not a failure of arithmetic.It is a failure of language, meaning, and structure. The…
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Numbers: Why Students Can Calculate but Still Don’t Understand Math
Introduction: When Correct Answers Hide Confusion Many students can count fluently.They follow procedures accurately and often arrive at the correct answers. Yet, when asked a simple question: “Which number is closer to 1,000: 972 or 1,028?” Some guess.Some immediately subtract.Very few instantly recognise that both numbers are equally close. This is not a small error.It…
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Why Introducing Algorithms Too Early Undermines Number Sense
The Case for Number Bonds in the Early Mathematics Curriculum Introduction In many early mathematics classrooms, children are introduced to vertical addition algorithms—stacking numbers and carrying—before they have developed robust number sense. While these procedures can efficiently produce correct answers, their premature introduction comes at a significant cognitive cost. Research in mathematics education consistently shows…
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Are Our Assessments Measuring Learning—or Limiting It?
A Learner-Centred View of Assessment in the Early Years With insights from NEP 2020, NCF, and Bloom’s 2 Sigma Problem The Tree-Climbing Test: A Familiar Problem Imagine a classroom where a monkey, a fish, a bird, and an elephant are all asked to do the same task: climb a tree. The monkey succeeds.The bird struggles.The…
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The Cursive Fascination: Why Early Cursive Writing Hurts Learning
Across many schools, there is a growing fascination with teaching cursive handwriting early—sometimes even replacing print or pre-cursive instruction altogether. Cursive is often perceived as advanced, refined, or academically superior. Parents are impressed. Schools feel distinctive. But this fascination ignores a fundamental truth of early childhood education: Children’s bodies develop before their skills do. What…
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Counting to 500 in Kindergarten: Achievement or Educational Malpractice?
Introduction In many schools today, early success in mathematics is proudly measured by how far children can count. “Our kindergarten children can count till 200… even 500.” While this may sound impressive, it reflects a serious misunderstanding of how mathematical thinking actually develops. Decades of research in cognitive science and mathematics education tell a very…
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If a Child Writes Kat with a K, Should We Correct Them — or Celebrate Them?
If a child writes kat instead of cat, should we correct the spelling immediately — or congratulate them? This is a question many parents, teachers, and early childhood educators often ask: “When we teach phonics, children start writing ‘wrong’ spellings like byootiful instead of beautiful. Shouldn’t we correct them straight away?” The short answer: Not…
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Making Maths Feel Like Discovery: A Lesson from the Other Side of the Desk
I was sitting cross-legged on the carpet with a small tray of Base 10 blocks in front of me. It could have been 10 minutes or an hour. Either way, time just disappeared. With a friend, we were building towers, exchanging ones for tens, tens for hundreds — making sense of a whole new number…