Teaching Multiplication in japan

bnt

I occasionally see the following graphic trotted out, showing how multiplication is (apparently) taught to schoolkids in Japan:



It has me scratching my head, since while I can see that it works, it's hard to see how that might be superior to the way I learned to do it by long multiplication.

Take the middle example, 146 x15 = 2190. It just took me about 20 seconds using long multiplication. Note that I first learned long multiplication about 30 years ago, and before that I had the times tables drilled in to me so well that they're still here in my head.

So, am I correct in saying that the long multiplcation method is dependent on a good knowledege of the times tables, and if so, do the newer methods make knowing times tables unnecessary? Do they still drill students in the times tables in school these days?

PS: It just occured to me that I have the same question about long division vs "chunking" - since the long division method also includes multiplication steps that benefit from knowing your times tables.

TheBody

I guess it looks nice because it's so visual. I would agree with you, in that I don't think I would be quicker doing it that way, compared to the old fashioned way.