Build mathematics instruction on children's funds of knowledge uncovered through home visits and teacher study groups¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The review highlights Civil's (1996) work with elementary, working-class, language-minority children, in which the idea of "funds of knowledge" is used to develop teaching innovations that capitalize on the "wealth of knowledge and resourcefulness of children". Teachers visited children's houses to uncover household knowledge, organized it in study groups with researchers, and transformed it into classroom activities that were implemented and assessed in the mathematics classroom.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Teachers and researchers who conduct home visits and study-group discussions to organize household knowledge into classroom activities

Constraints¶

• The review raises Civil's own unresolved questions: whether students see the mathematics in the modules as real school mathematics, and whether connections to later formal and abstract mathematics are made

Target Learners¶

• elementary school, working class, language minority children

Target Learning Goals¶

• mathematics learning that connects to household knowledge and practices

Affordances¶

• Contextual Systems Model Csm

Related Strategies¶

• Funds of Knowledge Household Interviews
• Connecting ELLs' Background Knowledge to Content

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Vilma Mesa. (1998). A Review of Literature on Under Achievement of Minorities in Mathematics. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED428113