Truly learning math makes wise thinkers
[font color=green]The following article is an op-ed piece by Southwestern University President Dr. Edward Burger that appeared in the Austin American-Statesman on Dec. 27, 2013 and in the Houston Chronicle on Jan. 17, 2014. Dr. Burger is an award-winning professor in mathematics and has appeared in nearly 4,000 online video lessons.
For full disclosure purposes, I am an alumni of Southwestern University and a math major.[/font]
The question that educators and legislators in Texas should be discussing right now is not whether high school students should be required to take two years of algebra. This is an excellent example of investing time, money and effort to thoughtfully and carefully answer the wrong question.
The right questions for all of us are: What positive and profound lifelong habits of effective thinking are we offering within all of our math classes? And if the content of the algebra curriculum will be quickly forgotten after the last required exam (or even before), then why bother to offer any algebra?
Currently, too many of our math classes — as well as other classes — focus on mindless memorization and repetition that is designed to game a system focused on scores on standardized tests that measure the ability to perform a certain act — an act that requires neither deep understanding of the content nor the necessity to make meaning of the material. Like magic, the moment the final exam is over, poof, the material is forgotten and magically disappears. Think it’s a joke? Math educators know otherwise. The overlap in middle school algebra, Algebra I and Algebra II is conservatively around 60 percent, and more realistically around 75 percent. Our curriculum acknowledges its ineffectiveness at inviting students to make meaning of algebra: Those who study algebra in school are doomed to repeat it.
We need to replace our current math classes with meaningful mathematical experiences that teach students how to think through math rather than simply memorize formulas about math.
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When teachers give assignments, they should always be asking themselves “What permanent benefit — what habit of thinking — will students get out of this exercise?” Teachers should craft assignments that promote long-term goals such as understanding deeply, learning from mistakes, asking probing questions, and seeing the flow of ideas. In other words, instilling lifelong habits of effective thinking.
More at http://www.southwestern.edu/live/news/8830-making-math-meaningful-is-essential-but-missing .
Cross-posted in the Education Group.