Learning is a stratified process, in which one skill needs to be properly mastered before other subsequent skills can be learned. When it comes to mathematics, mastering certain cognitive skills is a prerequisite for learning maths. Skills like focused, sustained and divided attention; visual processing; visual, sequential and working memory; deductive and inductive reasoning must be mastered first, before the child will be good at maths.

Louna Spies, maths teacher and Educational Practitioner at Edublox Paarl, recently presented “The Importance of Cognitive Skills in Maths Education” at the 3rd Technology in Education Conference in Johannesburg.