2020, Vol. 2, Issue 4, Part H

During the teaching internship in one of the government schools of Hauz Khas in Delhi, It was observed that the learning level of primary grade students in mathematics was high. They performed problems that involve computation easily and with great interest. However, when it comes to word problems or the NCERT textbooks problems which involve stories, students lose interest and feel anxious. They face problems while reading and comprehending. They are not able to reach the level where they use processes. They have fear of solving word problems. However, Stories create interest in a child's mind which engages them, creates excitement, and can motivate them to think about a particular problem as Judson G., (2017) say “Stories convey enthusiasm and evoke imagination skills.”

Moreover, “Stories can engage children to critically think about the process that is involved and think about how things are going as it is related to daily life.” When children listen to a story, it creates mental images in their minds and connects to the content making learning more meaningful. Stories provide children, experience which enables children to think as if it has happened with them which leads to the creation of problem-solving ability in children and a sense of confidence in children.” (Miller S and Pennycuff L, 2008).

Therefore, keeping this in mind, the present study was carried out by using storybooks and tried to analyze how storybooks can affect learning and understanding of mathematics in primary grade students through the qualitative, interpretive, and constructivist approaches.

The major findings of the study are that students were able to use various mathematical skills such as problem-solving, visualization, analogy, communication, logical mathematics, etc to solve mathematical problems incorporated in the story. Moreover, students were able to use conjectures, and the fixation of methods was also removed.

Through this study, it is concluded that using stories to teach mathematical concepts leads to the development of different mathematical skills such as problem-solving, analogical skills, visualization skills, etc. It also helps students to look into the mathematical problems from a different lens and use conjectures to solve them. Henceforth, stories help in developing a child's interest not only in language but also in mathematics.