Teaching Mathematics to Elementary Children in Saudi Arabia
With the Use of Individualized Instruction
While Christian Europe was slumbering through the darkness of the Middle Ages, the Middle East experienced its own renaissance of the arts and sciences, including mathematics. It is, after all, the Arabs who invented the concept of zero, along with Arabic numerals, and developed a sophisticated system of mathematics before the scientific revolution entered the European continent. This scientific outpouring did not last, however, and much of the Middle Eastern civilization that developed during the early Islamic period declined into quiescence (Nyrop, 1977).
Much of the responsibility for both governing and developing Saudi Arabia came to rest with men from the Western countries. Although suffering from benign neglect early in its existence, it became an increased focus of attention with the discovery and development of its mineral wealth. However, that wealth was essentially created, and managed, under the aegis of Western corporations. The focus of the Kingdom was not on the development of either its mineral or human resources (Lacey, 1981).
As a consequence, when the state of Saudi Arabia began to take charge of its mineral wealth, and its national destiny, during the early 1950s, much of the population could be characterized as suffering from both illiteracy and innumeracy. During the early 1970s, the first of the five-year development plans to modernize Saudi Arabia was implemented. A major focus of the development effort was on the establishment of schools at all levels of the population to educate boys and girls for their contribution to nation-building. This was because the vast majority of both boys and girls were both illiterate and not in school (Al-Farsy, 1978). In 1960, for example, primary school enrollment was only 22 percent for males and 2 percent for females. Even by 1970, female literacy rat...