First Reflection for PDP 3232

PDP 3232: January 29th 2008 - Reflect and Respond

Reflections, Connections and Questions re: readings

The base reading for this reflection was “Four Practices That Math Classrooms Could Do Without” by Nick Fiori. I really liked this paper. It was short and easy to understand.

His first point was about giving students forty problems a night. When I was a classroom teacher and was first starting out, I did that. Why not? The parents loved it because they could understand what I was asking the kids to do. No one complained as it seemed like real mathematics was happening.

If my objective was to make faster human calculators, then I succeeded. Was it good pedagogy? I doubt it.

Point two (The third-person czars of math problems) made me recall an experience getting older. I can recall looking at one of my brother’s grade twelve math texts when I was still in elementary school. The book had little vignettes about famous mathematicians. I thought this was quite interesting. I had never thought before that mathematics was such a human activity. It did seem to be such a faceless pursuit.

Reflections, Connections and Questions re: discussions

In our discussions of this article, we spent time discussing what mathematicians actually do. If we were to actually ask children (and even parents) this question, they would have no idea. The article suggests that mathematicians spend most of their time looking for good problems to solve. (As Mr. Fiori said: “Teachers give problems/students give answers”. )

This is why change is so hard. Here is what I believe. When educators who follow the three part lesson plan talk of mathematics, they are thinking of problem solving. When much of the general public talks of mathematics, they are thinking of arithmetic. Perhaps if we banished the name “mathematics” and instead talked of “problem solving”, then there would be more clarity about what we were trying to accomplish.


Next Steps…

So what to do?

Step 1: Make curriculum as painless as possible. I liked the point from the discussion that stated that we should not send open ended problems home. The children will need our guidance to complete these types of questions. The parents won’t know what is expected and their frustration levels will rise. Instead we should send some home skill and drill questions. We don’t have time to practise these enough in the classroom and if the children get stuck, the parents will feel comfortable helping.

Step 2: Humanize mathematics. We can spend some time discussing the humans who created mathematics and why. What kinds of problems were they looking to solve. Mathematics is a creative activity on par with any art form. If we give it a human interest component, it will be more interesting to our students. I believe that this is hardly impossible task. I note that in popular culture, mathematics has been more frequently represented. In recent years, I can recall seeing at least two movies about mathematicians: Proof and Good Will Hunting.

It is interesting that mathematics is one of those subjects from which you can get either a B.A. or a B. Sc. degree in most universities.

Step 3: Celebrate good problems. I liked how one of the teachers in the class maintained a bulletin board with a difficult problem every week. For those children who solved the problem, they had their name listed on the board. There are mathematics competitions also where we celebrate those students who come up with answers. If we accept that finding good problems is part of mathematics, perhaps we need a way to recognize children who come up with good problems too.