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Mental maths and brain plasticity

Think Mentals 12/5/16

A child’s brain has an amazing ability to change and grow. Understanding what types of activities encourage brain plasticity allows you to teach a more effective mental computation program.

What is brain plasticity?

Learning new skills and solving problems increases the activity of brain cells and the number of pathways they form. These changes are known as brain plasticity and their benefits last a lifetime.

How does doing mental maths improve brain plasticity?

With Think Mentals, each day’s work is divided into two sets of questions that enhance brain plasticity in different ways:

1. The first set of questions relates to selecting and applying a particular operations strategy. This process stimulates brain activity markedly. Once the problem of determining the most effective strategy is solved, the questions can be answered quickly.

2. The second set is an assortment of questions from all the content strands of the Australian Curriculum. Students have to apply maths concepts they have learnt previously to solve each question. Because each question is based on a different maths concept, students have to recall different types of information quickly. This rapid switching from one maths concept to another enhances brain plasticity.

Combining these processes of selecting and applying concepts learnt both recently and in previous years gives students a comprehensive platform to promote brain plasticity and growth.

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