Dan Meyer: Math Problems

He begins his talk with the statement: 'I market a product that my market doesnt want and is forced on them.' He is a high school math teacher. So am I.

His talk about revamping the way math is taught in the United States. He says that the way it is taught in the U.S. almost guarantees it wont be remembered. It is currently focused on computation skills. Skills that if forgotten are easy to relearn if one has the proper foundation and mathematical reasoning skills to relearn how to compute the problem. Teaching that mathematical reasoning is the difficulty. That is the part of teaching math that I am focusing my action research on. See www.lleyva.weebly.com 'Action Research' tab for more details and current updates. But as posted as an earlier blogpost (see Passion), I want to see how students think and their reasoning through writing and error recognition.

Second on the comment about math teaching in the U.S. (a partial tangent): I was speaking with another math teacher who is not from this country and she noted the differences in how math is taught in the U.S. and in other places as well. She said that in her country the students were drilled everyday to reinforce basic skills. I wondered, does this mean that the students then had a stronger foundation and thus were better able to reason through more difficult problems? My question did not get answered but she did mention that mathematics were also not taught in a disjointed sequence there either. Math concepts were taught more logically (when they arised to solve a problem) not by algebra, then geometry, then back to algebra, then precalculus.

Anyway he cited that there are 5 signs math is being taught incorrectly in schools: 1- lack of initiative, 2- lack of perseverance, 3- lack of retention, 4- aversion to word problems, 5- eagerness for formula.

My thoughts when I read this: boom! Common core! Boom! New textbook adoption! Boom! Integrated mathematics!

Anyway: next he likened this to a quote and thought by David Milch: 'impatience with irresolution'  This specifically relates to number 5. Milch said this was the downfall of sitcoms that people saw the beginning middle and end too easily. Shows are too easy on the brain and it shaped their neural pathways to expect this and see only this in their lives. Sometimes I feel like technology does this for our students..makes it too easy and expectant. But math can be presented in that way too and students become adapted to it and problems ensue when they are challenged even remotely. And as Meyer says 'the problems our students will solve for us are not so simple.'

Scary.

Meyer goes to talk about textbook and cookie cutter problems and how that can make our students impatient problem solvers. The problem is even designed to scaffold them significantly. Teachers should readapt these to make it more difficult and interesting and create student discussion and argument. My master teacher used a problem from the MAP website the other day and had the students discuss how they got their answers. Commonly referred to as a 'number talk.' It was interesting to watch her class literally argue then come to find they were actually agreeing.

This is what needs to happen more in math classes and other classes. Students need to become more active learners and take an interest in the content.

Lastly he describes a water filling problem...thinking about trying that on Thursday...I want to see if the students are up for the challenge.