Talks for Primary School Teachers by Madeleine Goutard

2021 REPRINT

A lucid commentary on the teaching approach to be adopted with the Cuisenaire Rods, written by a gifted teacher whose work with children has been a source of inspiration for many. This text includes valuable practical suggestions for classroom work.

This book will be welcomed by everyone who teaches mathematics by the Cuisenaire-Gattegno method. For here we have down-to-earth advice and a great deal of help from someone who herself has a wide experience of the material. Psychologist and educationalist as well as a practising teacher, Madeleine Goutard has recognised many of the misconceptions and misunderstandings that can arise when a new approach is introduced. She deals with each of these with a constructive clarity which the reader soon recognises to be one of her most striking qualities.

The greater part of the book discusses the questions that spring to the mind of the newcomer to the approach, and to the teacher with some experience of the rods.

Questions such as:

• Can children be introduced to the rods at any stage in their schooling?
• Do they become too dependent on the material?
• What is the role of memorisation?
• How can children acquire a proper understanding of fractions?

The author's advice is at all times practical and thoughtful. She suggests solutions to classroom problems, but more than this, she gives us guidance on the approach itself. "Anyone who takes up the Cuisenaire-Gattegno method", she says, "breaks with ingrained habit and acquires an attitude of research".

This is not a textbook, nor an ABC of the rods, but a study in simple language of the Cuisenaire-Gattegno approach to mathematics teaching.

ISBN 978 0 85225 601 9
79 pages