•Notícia

Maybe the reason your son or daughter can’t solve some math problems is not because they lack the necessary knowledge but because they can’t distinguish the colors used in their textbook. A study carried out by Francesc Bofill, a graduate of the Master’s Degree in Optometry and Vision Sciences offered by UPC-Barcelona Tech, indicates that if the presentation of an exercise includes both red and green, or red and yellow, students with color discrimination problems may get the wrong answer.

“This can lead a teacher to think the student doesn’t know how to solve the problem, without it even crossing her mind that the real problem is that the book they’re using isn’t the most suitable one because of the problem the child suffers from. What’s more, parents sometimes don’t realize their children are color blind till they’re older,” says Bofill.

Color blindness, which is usually hereditary, makes it difficult or impossible for sufferers to distinguish certain colors, mainly red, green and yellow. In Spain approximately 8% of men and 0.4% of women are affected. In the school population, this means 8% of boys are likely to have difficulty learning math using existing textbooks, where colors are often used in the problems children have to solve.

In the study, Bofill analyzed over 70 books produced by 12 Spanish publishers in three subject areas: math, Catalan and Spanish. The participation of 88 primary schools allowed the researcher to find out what books are most widely used in Catalonia. According to Bofill, “none of the schools that took part were aware of the problems color blind children can experience because of the way certain colors are used in textbooks.”

Leading publishers of schoolbooks—including Cruïlla, Edebé and Santillana—were also involved and have expressed their interest in finding solutions to the problems identified in the math books they publish. According to Bofill’s study, between 8% and 11% of the pages in these publications are not suitable for use with color blind children.

The analysis of the books included colorimetric tests, which were carried out in the laboratory of the Applied Optics and Image Processing Group at the Terrassa College of Optics and Optometry. The conclusion drawn was that the colors used together in certain exercises by most of the publishers are difficult or impossible for color blind children to distinguish. Bofill says that in language subjects “the use of colors is generally not a problem, though there are some minor exceptions.”

Solutions will include rethinking the design of exercises, introducing geometrical shapes or colored backgrounds, and avoiding exercises where students need to have normal color perception to be able to solve a problem. Bofill also recommends that care be taken with the color combinations used in exercises. He advises, for example, that blue be used with yellow or orange, and that the use of red with green or yellow should be avoided.