Talk:Improving Math Education





Comment by Bob Albrecht 11/4/2013
Ahoy Dave, Will the new edition of Improving Math Education be a minor update, or will you do a major rewrite with lots of new stuff, including sticking your neck out here and there? I hope you include: Analysis of Smarter Balanced tests at http://www.smarterbalanced.org/sample-items-and-performance-tasks/ Analysis of current state tests. Stuff from our Math Problems Divorced from Reality. (Blush) Selections from my eBooks Mathemagical Meanderings, Mathemagical Black Holes, and Mathemagical Numbers 1 to 99. Commentary on the impact of charter schools, magnet schools, alternative schools, academies, et cetera: positive, negative, not much difference? While collecting email addresses in Oregon, California, and Washington, I have noticed that many schools have one or two or a few special ed teachers and many more non-certificated (classified} people called, for example, para educators or instructional assistants. I think that I was one when I tutored at Newport High School. Classified employees are paid much less than teachers, so I wonder if schools save money by using fewer special ed teachers and more classified people. I got $11 per hour. The high cost of textbooks and why don't we have inexpensive modular textbooks that you can download? Making printed textbooks more modular. MariAnn's Math for Elementary School Teachers textbook is in a 3-ring binder (thick!) and a second 3-ring binder in which she puts the pages covering this week's topics. A major strand in the course is drawing geometric pictures to model math operations on whole numbers, integers, fractions, and decimals. I have enjoyed tutoring her because I had not previously done much of this type of modeling. Hey! What say you review courses and textbooks and online stuff about Math for Elementary School Teachers. Isn't that a foundation item for pre-service teachers? MariAnn likes her Math for Elementary School Teachers teacher so much that she is thinking of retaking pre-calculus in this teacher's pre-calc course. Include much ado about students acquiring more math skills online so that classroom time can be used more effectively. Reviewing all the online stuff should take you only, say, a few thousand hours. For example, I watched good Kahn videos, bad Kahn videos, and in-between Kahn videos. There is an interesting and relevant article in September 2013 issue of Popular Mechanics "Hacking Education" on page 65. If I were writing a book about improving math education, I would expound on my idea of making grade 8 a year of review, preparation for algebra, and semester or year-long strands of hands-on activities. One objective would be to make sure that students entering high school can do (very well) arithmetic with whole numbers, positive and negative integers, fractions, mixed numbers, decimals, percentages, scientific notation, et cetera, et cetera. I have sent emails to you about this. In teaching arithmetic during this year, I would use lots of modeling such as that in MariAnn's Math for Elementary School Teachers textbook. MariAnn intends to keep this book as a resource when she becomes a teacher, so I will be able to browse it for ideas. Hey! Pretend that you had not written a previous edition of Improving Math Education. What would you write? Bob & George

Comment by Ken Jensen 7/22/09
The following is quoted from an email message sent to the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics distribution list on 7/22/09/09.


 * I do agree that high quality instruction has teacher directed as well as student centered components. The point of the original article was students reporting "that at least half of their lectures were boring, and that PowerPoint was one of the dullest methods they saw." My contention is that this occurs because the technology is being abused by teachers and professors who are controlling the learning based on the belief that their way is the only way to get to an answer.  I have seen Smart Boards, Visualizers, and other classroom technology used by students who are exploring, discussing, debating, and presenting ideas, concepts, procedures, and results in a highly engaging learning environment.  I have not, however, ever seen a PowerPoint presentation that generated a desire to learn more about the topic.

Comment by Ken Jensen 4/17/09
The following is quoted from an email message sent to the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics distribution list on 4/17/09.


 * Most of the difficulty I have when coaching math teachers is helping them to see an instructional model that is different than the one they experienced as a student. Previous teaching experiences in a traditional model does make a transition into an exploratory model challenging, but I believe that most of difficulty comes from our cultural perceptions of what a math class looks like, and this understanding comes from how we were taught as youngsters. I try to validate a teachers struggle with this by saying, "The hardest thing you can ever ask a teacher to do is to teach in a way they were not taught themselves".


 * What I am finding is that the best math teachers coming out of college these days have grown up in a system where math is taught through an exploratory, constructivist model. This seems to be a better indicator of success in our district than the college they attended. Teachers who experienced best instructional practices from their own teachers are becoming our best teachers.  However, having said that, I am finding that the 3 semester internship model though the University of Colorado at Denver is providing us with teachers who take on their first year more effectively than the other schools in our state.

Comment by Herman Rubin added 3/14/09
Herman Rubin is a professor in Statistics at Purdue University. Quoting from a 2/12/2002 blog posting:


 * Government schools [our public school system] have put our education in such a bad way that one cannot even find schools which will teach children  according to their abilities.  A major part of the problem  is the utterly stupid idea that all children should get the  same education at a given age.




 * This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views  are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University.  Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907-1399

Comment by David Moursund 3/14/08
Education is multi-dimensional. In general, people are not good at dealing with multi-dimensional problems that have many interacting and often non linear variables.

Thus, for example, it might be suggested that providing all students with a laptop computer will significantly improve the quality of education the students are getting.

Someone else will suggest that if we provide every student with some books  that they will own and have available where they live will significantly improve education.

Someone else will suggest that assigning more homework (or, less homework) will significantly improve education.

Still others will suggest that more tests and setting higher requirements for moving from grade level to grade level, or for graduating from high school, will significantly improve education.

The list goes on and on. What often happens is that a particular stakeholder group will select one or several of the ideas, work to get them implemented (required), and expect that the results will be good. In most cases, the proposed changes produce little lasting improvement.