A recent study has found that Indian students who work in markets develop strong mental math skills, but often struggle with formal math taught in schools. Conversely, students enrolled in schools perform well on academic math problems but face difficulties when applying math in real-world situations. This highlights a gap between applied and academic mathematics, raising questions about how to enhance learning for both groups.
Math Performance: Market Kids vs. School Kids
The study, published in Nature, was conducted by researchers from MIT, NYU, IIM Kolkata, and Harvard University. It examined students working in retail markets in Kolkata and Delhi and compared their math abilities with those of students who do not work.
Findings revealed that children working in markets demonstrated remarkable speed and accuracy in mental calculations, essential for handling real-life transactions. For example, when asked to calculate the cost of vegetables and return change, market kids answered correctly 95-98% of the time on the second attempt. However, when given a standardized school math test, only 32% could correctly divide a three-digit number by a one-digit number, and just 54% could perform basic subtraction.
Meanwhile, school-going students excelled in formal problem-solving with pen and paper but struggled when asked to solve real-world transaction-based problems. While 96% of school students solved written math problems correctly, only 60% could answer when asked in a simulated market setting.
Three Key Experiments and Findings
The research involved three experiments:
- First Experiment (Kolkata Markets):
- 201 students working in markets demonstrated strong arithmetic abilities in real-life calculations but struggled with formal math problems.
- Second Experiment (Delhi Markets and Schools):
- 400 market-working children replicated the results from Kolkata, showing poor performance on academic math tests.
- 200 school students performed well in traditional school math tests but struggled with real-life transaction-based problems.
- Third Experiment (Delhi – Mixed Group Analysis):
- Market kids were 85% accurate in market-style problems, while only 10% of school students solved similar problems correctly in limited-time conditions.
- However, given pen and paper for standard school math, 59% of school students solved problems correctly, compared to 45% of market kids.
- In a word problem simulating a market transaction, only 1% of school kids answered correctly without aid, while one-third of market kids got it right.
Why Do Market Kids Excel in Mental Math?
The study found that market-working children rely on intuitive techniques such as:
- Using Base-10 Rounding: Example: To solve 43 × 11, they calculate (43 × 10) + 43 = 473.
- Quick Approximation Strategies: Instead of following strict school-taught algorithms, they use real-life mental shortcuts.
However, school students rely heavily on formal methods and struggle when forced to think outside structured formulas.
Implications for Education
The study raises concerns about how math is taught in schools, especially for students who need to apply it in real-world scenarios. Researchers suggest that curriculums should bridge the gap between intuitive and formal mathematics, making learning more relevant to practical applications.
Future Research and Educational Strategies
MIT economist Abhijit Banerjee, co-author of the study and 2019 Nobel Prize winner in Economics, believes that students should be encouraged to reason their way to an approximation before applying formal methods. However, he acknowledges that rigid school curriculums limit such approaches.
Co-author Esther Duflo, also a Nobel laureate, emphasizes that this does not mean teachers are at fault but rather that the educational framework needs rethinking to integrate both applied and academic math skills.
With these findings, researchers are now exploring new educational experiments to help students develop a more comprehensive mathematical understanding, ensuring they can apply their knowledge both in classrooms and in real-world settings.
