For C4T #3, I'm assigned to comment on Frank Noschese's blog which is called Action-Reaction.
His first post was criticizing math education, which I really enjoyed! He basically said that students just use their calculators way too much. Most people can't even make simple change, and he uploaded a video that educates us on how to make change. He claims that if we could teach kids how to make simple change, or in other words, master the basic processes of arithmetic and mathematics then we will have no problems teaching them the harder stuff.
I definitely agreed with him. There are kids in my higher-level math classes that cannot even get a common denominator with fractions. A lot of the problem is their high school teachers making them mindlessly enter data into calculators without knowing the actual process of what is happening!
For his second post, he talked about why he is a "modeler". A modeler is a teacher that uses an unorthodox approach to teaching Physics. It is a style of education that is more hands-on, and it uses real-life, simple scenarios to help students to learn the fundamentals of Physics. It is a very interesting way to teach!
I told him that I would like to find a way to integrate this type of teaching into my own lessons in lesser maths. If I could get the students to be interested in the subject (most people find math boring) then it would be that much easier to educate them on all the elements of any math class.
Noschese's view on calculators is interesting! Maybe those people in your higher level math class cannot do simple math because they do not want to. It may not necessarily be that they don't do it because they can't, but that they don't do it because they aren't willing to! This theory goes back to internal motivation and self-sufficiency.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget pictures!