Comments on: Required Reading: Improving Learning In Mathematics

By: dy/dan » Blog Archive » CMC-N 2011 Reax

dy/dan » Blog Archive » CMC-N 2011 Reax — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 23:59:15 +0000

[…] Shell Centre in England, which includes Malcolm Swan, whose exemplary work I've covered here and here. These are exceptional educators and task designers, but you don't have to take my word for it. The […]

By: Kirk

Kirk — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 22:54:10 +0000

Wow. Just finished reading it. That is powerful stuff. I think I am going to create a working group at the high school level around this.

By: pepsmccrea

pepsmccrea — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 21:18:48 +0000

Dan et al.

If you want a greater insight into Malcolm’s thinking underpinning the design of the standards box then this is a good start…

http://www.educationaldesigner.org/ed/volume1/issue1/article3/

By: Online Teaching Resources #1 « Between the Walls

Online Teaching Resources #1 « Between the Walls — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 17:08:57 +0000

[…] Learning in Mathematics. Â Dan Meyer described this resource best: “It is, explicitly, a collection of activities – full explanations of resources a teacher […]

By: Audrey Mc^2

Audrey Mc^2 — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 01:52:33 +0000

Hi Dan – thanks so much for this. I’ve now made, and used in my class, 2 activities based on this document. Huge improvement in engagement, even with lots of room for improvement on my design. The kids ended up discussing exactly those things that I wanted them to, only without any overt prompting from me. The activites are embedded in my Mar 11 and Mar 7 posts at:
http://audrey-mcsquared.blogspot.com/
(in case anyone wants to use/improve on them – hey, have at it!)

Audrey

By: lfarrington

lfarrington — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 03:35:23 +0000

Just finished reading this tonight. Lots of highlighter ink was used! Thanks for the pdf.

By: KYoung

KYoung — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 20:36:21 +0000

we refer to this pack as the Big Blue Box (as that’s what the folders come in)

It has been an invaluable resource to a department who want to encourage pupils to think about maths.

Also it isn’t just about the resource its about how to use it effectively.

By: Sam Critchlow

Sam Critchlow — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 23:52:52 +0000

Thanks for the post – we have apprentice teachers at our school each semester, and I have been in the process of collecting readings, videos, etc. specific to math education to supplement their teaching seminar. Will add this to the collection.

By: liz

liz — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 00:11:24 +0000

Hey Dan! I’m so happy to have found this blog. I’ve only poked around, but what a great resource! Thank you especially for this. I’m in my pre-service year, gearing up for next year, so I appreciate the wealth of knowledge here. I hope your studies are going well. I’ll be checking your site often!

By: blaw0013

blaw0013 — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 02:30:08 +0000

@Pwolf. First, let me say (restate) with great emphasis, the classroom strategies advocated in the pamphlet are GREAT, and the pamphlet itself I predict will be a great resource for the preservice teachers that I teach.

My disagreement with the pamplet’s author is not captured in the passage you quoted, rather in the paragraph before: “the fatal flaw in its organizing premise, that there is one mathematics and one way to think mathematically that is worth knowing. This author decries the notion of pursuing a “discovery” approach to mathematics, yet the entire pamphlet has students working to know someone else’s mathematics, i.e. to discover something already known.”

My naming “someone else’s mathematics” is a deeply troubling (form me?) aspect of what we are charged to do as public school teachers. Are we to create divergent or convergent thinkers? A convergent goal would agree with the “discover how you’re supposed to know/think mathematically.” This convergence sees one mathematics, probably those represented by “the standards.”

A divergent goal would engage kids in the mathematical activity of being human, thinking, reasoning, generalizing, deducing, etc. Maybe the Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice point well to this defining quality of what might be “everyone’s mathematics.”

I don’t know… it is a very slippery idea for me. I know I don’t want to create a roomful of young adults who believe they don’t think right, that is like me.