The Book The Soroban. Contexts. Theory. Practice is so important and necessary that it can serve as the ‘bible of soroban’ – wrote Kenishi Ishido in the preface – a master and researcher of soroban, founder of one of the largest soroban schools in Japan. We believe that this is how it will be received. It is the first book in Poland, and perhaps also in Europe, that treats the subject of soroban comprehensively. In addition to purely mathematical issues, it touches on the pedagogical plane, also taking into account educational topics. It focuses on the scientific aspect, history and teaching methodology of the Japanese abacus. It is a guide to the world of soroban for teachers, home educators, parents and children.
The book discusses in detail the learning of counting on the soroban and mental arithmetic from the perspective of a professional teacher with many years of experience and Japanese qualifications, teaching soroban in the European and currently Japanese style.
Specification
Authors: Karol Sieńkowski, Albert Wolkiewicz
Publisher: Soroban Academy
Place and year of publication: Siedlce 2022
ISBN: 978-83-963888-0-3
Format: B5
Printing: offset, color
Cover: hardcover, sewn, ribbon
Number of pages: 240
Chapter 1. Contexts
In this chapter, the authors invite the reader into the rich world of the soroban, its culture, history and tradition. The journey begins with a summary of the changes taking place in education and questions about the place of the soroban in the education of tomorrow. Next, the reader learns about the structure of the modern education system in Japan and the place of religion in the culture of this country. The following pages introduce the invention of the number.
The following section introduces you to the history of the soroban and traditional Japanese mathematics. The Ishido-Ski calculation method was also presented.
A lot of space was devoted to soroban in Poland. The most important events popularizing soroban and the Ishido-Shiki method are described.
Chapter 2. Theory
This part of the book presents theoretical information about the science of soroban with particular emphasis on the Ishido-Shiki method. The learning process is described in detail, supported by research on learning and memory. Children with specific learning disabilities were not left out. The usefulness of the soroban as a tool to help adults maintain the efficiency of the mind is discussed.
The publication devoted to soroban could not miss the subject of Japanese mental arithmetic. A thorough discussion and analysis of this method of memory calculation has been made. When writing the pages of this chapter, I used my own experience as well as that of Japanese teachers and masters. The final part presents the opinions of parents, children and adults about the Ishido-Shiki method.
Chapter 3. Practice
This part of the book is the most extensive. It contains a complete instruction on calculations on the soroban using the Ishido-Shiki method. The examples are chosen in small steps according to increasing difficulty. Each action is illustrated and described. The book contains about 700 illustrations of the abacus, which show the condition of the sliding beads. The images indicate which fingers to use and in what order to move the beads. The introduction of new issues ends with exercises. They consist of over 700 calculation tasks (bars), which allow you to acquire accounting efficiency.
Learning to calculate is about the actions of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division in soroban up to 7 kyu level. At the end of the book, there are mock exam tests in accordance with the tests of the Japanese Soroban Association. Tests can help to check the speed of calculations as well as to verify and self-assess the acquired skills.
There is an appendix to Chapter 3. It consists of a card to facilitate addition and subtraction, a multiplication table and an abacus sticker.