The following is a video of Conrad Wolfram, a fantastic mathematician and speaker who argues that computers are the dividing factor between the classrooms and the real world. By this, he means that the pedagogy and practices currently used in classrooms today, are unrelated to the real life examples of where these concepts can be applied. Mathematics is process that moves people towards logical reasoning, something we need in our day to day activities. As teachers, we need to teach students to
1. ask the right questions
2. set up their data
3. calculate
4. take their answer and apply it to the real world.
Currently, Wolfram believes that we spend up to 80% of math classes focused on step 3, calculating when we should be teaching students all steps evenly. His biggest issue with the current math system is that because the emphasis is so great on getting students to calculate answers, students are not learning 'big picture' math in the context of real world examples and implications. So much time is spent on computations in a classroom whereas in the real world solutions are often solved by computers. I believe that to change the current math system would be a massive undergoing, where the system bottom-up would have to re-educate teachers to be more tech savvy far passing their current knowledge of technology and programming. Top-down, government ministries are just as responsible for restructuring curriculum to move away from computational strategies and move toward comprehension strategies. However, this change could be revolutionary in terms of the leadership and innovation our next generation of citizens could offer.
I would argue that the opposite is actually beginning to happen. We are no longer using math drills and have done away with rote learning. Math teachers are going through the process of problems more than ever before. Even in as early as grade 1, there are whole new ways to add numbers that is completely different than even 7 or 8 years ago. Students are being taught strategies and techniques, thinking and problem solving skills more than ever before. So much so, that this has been an issue of debate; that we may even need to go back to the 'old' ways of teaching math. But let's not get into that debate here.
ReplyDeleteCareer focus has been pushed in every subject, including math. I would also argue that more and more teachers are linking their materials to the real world. There is still room for improvement, but I think we are on the right track.