Seeing as how today's topic was about the gaps we are experiencing in our math adventures I thought I would share one I experienced today. I tutored a grade 10 student in the grade 10 applied math course (the first time I have tutored in over 2 years) and found the experience eye opening. I had heard from the teacher that she required a lot of help but I had assumed that it was in the concepts they were learning in class. We started with factoring and after explaining and going through some examples in the book she told me she was confident to do some on her own so I thought great, lets give it a go (albeit a bit naïve). The student had to use the calculator for every addition, subtraction and multiplication operation they did. As I noticed this, I asked her not to use the calculator for a couple questions to see what would happen and she had no confidence in any answer she was giving me. It was like I took her life line away from her and she wasn't able to do math anymore.
I think a major issue facing students today is the fear of making a mistake. I asked her why she needs to use the calculator for everything she did and she responded "so I know I am right." Maybe its a little shocking to me since I have been out of education for a while but I do not remember coming across this lack of confidence in doing even the most basic math skills. I called my mom, who is a secondary school math teacher, and she said the last 3-5 years has been getting worse and worse with students being like that. It was definitely and eye opening experience and a little bit scary.
Matt,
ReplyDeleteI taught at a Private School, the Grade 9 math I taught to Grade 10 students who had failed the course the pervious year but needed the Academic stream for their end goals of going to an NCAA school for sports. There was a total lack in confidence in them as they had already failed the course once before.
They were also under a lot of stress because the academic stream was beyond the level most of their abilities, but they wanted that NCAA option. I had one student that had to use a multiplication times table taped to his binder and used his fingers to add the simplest equations. This was a student I put in a strong recommendation for to take the Locally Developed stream for this course because they concepts in Grade 9 were way to challenging for him that Grade 10 would have likely turned him off completely. The use of technology is great, but sometimes because too much of a crutch for some with subjects like math.
The foundational skills for math have been lost somewhere along the way and students need to have these skills in order to feel more confident as you have witnessed. Thanks for sharing!!