Teach The Teacher Tuesday

For many years the idea of using fingers to help solve mathematical problems was thought to be “baby-ish” and strongly discouraged by educators. However with new scientific research, presented by neurobiologists and Dr. Jo Boaler, allowing students to use their fingers in mathematics should actually be allowed, even encouraged. Why? Firstly, mathematics is a very abstract concept, and having students use their fingers to bring the abstract to concrete can be supportive in not only finding the solution, but also building stronger understandings of the mathematics used. Additionally, it was found that the somatosensory finger area of the brain (known to activate in response to heat, pressure, pain or when using your fingers) lit up when students aged 8-13 were working on subtraction problems, even when they weren’t using their fingers! This finding has lead researches to believe that when working mathematically, the brain could be hardwired to visualize fingers to support computation (Peyser, 2017). 

Following this research, Dr. Jo Boaler created the “Finger Trails” series, which supports children in practicing finger discrimination, which with the current research is thought to strengthen student’s mathematical abilities. Once introduced, and students understand the activity, the finger trail series are a fantastic launch to your mathematics lesson, as they will strengthen and activate the somatosensory finger area, ready for whatever mathematical concepts you will introduce in the lesson. 

For more information about finger discrimination read the short article: Kids WHo Count with Their Fingers Are Smarter, Researchers Say, and be sure to visit YouCubed: Finger Trails  resources to use in your next mathematics lessons.