Comments on: Real Work v. Real World /2014/developing-the-question-real-work-v-real-world/ less helpful Fri, 09 Jan 2015 14:57:00 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.2 By: Doug /2014/developing-the-question-real-work-v-real-world/#comment-2399237 Fri, 09 Jan 2015 14:57:00 +0000 /?p=21220#comment-2399237 It seems to me the point of this discussion is “how do we get kids engaged in meaningful and valuable work?”

So I would like to think of two different dimensions on the grid:
“Engages the Student” and “The Learning Has Value to the Student”.

When in the quadrant when both are ‘yes’ then the learning is most effective.

What is difficult is that what engages a student is different for each student, and can be different for the same student at different times. Sometimes they see the relevance because it applies to a current job or issue. Or they get hooked by stimulating their curiosity or competitive juices. Or they created their own interest because they created the question.

The problem is when we are working outside of that most effective quadrant.

]]> By: Kerri /2014/developing-the-question-real-work-v-real-world/#comment-2399236 Fri, 09 Jan 2015 14:44:08 +0000 /?p=21220#comment-2399236 I believe that it is important to have authentic problems for students to understand how what they are learning relates to what they will encounter outside of the classroom. At the same time it is important for students to practice skills in order to be able to formulate problems and questions. In order for students to feel comfortable asking further questions about a topic and then developing a way to find the answer to that question the student need to have a strong grasp of their basic skills, which seem to be where many are getting held up. So, if students understand that their problem solving skills and basic numeracy skills ore connected and are needed to solve real life authentic problems they are more likely to be engaged and show a willingness to learn.

]]> By: ED /2014/developing-the-question-real-work-v-real-world/#comment-2399235 Fri, 09 Jan 2015 14:42:27 +0000 /?p=21220#comment-2399235 For me, the upper left quadrant simply exemplifies the connection that math has to its origins in philosophy and that there was never any need for “real world” applications. I guess what I’m saying is that I see no real world in that upper left quadrant, I complicated, esoteric, abstract thinking about things that expand and inspire new ideas. The words, “real world” are past their usefulness and should be replaced by “thinking”.

]]> By: Courtney /2014/developing-the-question-real-work-v-real-world/#comment-2399234 Fri, 09 Jan 2015 14:37:36 +0000 /?p=21220#comment-2399234 I love this discussion and agree with most of the points Dan made. I try to provide a real world context to most of the “anchor problems” I use with students but I agree that it’s the approach and intention of the problem–the focus on PROBLEM SOLVING that makes the difference. Most of my students come to me in 9th grade hating math. The describe middle school experiences where they were showed how to do a problem and then asked to do 30 more on their own–as clueless about the content when they ended as when they started and then lost when the class moved on. It usually takes nearly a year of work to get students to see that there really is no one right answer to the problems we work on.

That’s when things change. When students really believe me that I care more about the process than the product (and that they should too) they start to TRUST math. And, it turns out, they start to get good at it too.

]]> By: Math Band: Are You Teaching Students To Cover or Compose? /2014/developing-the-question-real-work-v-real-world/#comment-2348886 Mon, 17 Nov 2014 20:17:38 +0000 /?p=21220#comment-2348886 […] for my guitar lessons: get it done as fast as you possibly can. In both cases, I think assigning “Real Work” would have encouraged me to think more about what I was doing and in turn, lead to more […]

]]> By: What Makes an Engaging Task? | Math Teacher in Training /2014/developing-the-question-real-work-v-real-world/#comment-2344738 Sat, 15 Nov 2014 20:48:59 +0000 /?p=21220#comment-2344738 […] engagement is something I’m still trying to pin down. Dan Meyer has written somewhat on this subject, but I’m still trying to pin down the effective features of a task, […]

]]> By: Creating Math Through Graphing Stories | iPad EdTech /2014/developing-the-question-real-work-v-real-world/#comment-2309516 Wed, 05 Nov 2014 01:04:33 +0000 /?p=21220#comment-2309516 […] I’m realizing that the activity itself probably needs a bit of life pumped into it. Is it real world or real work? Are students really excited to use the CBRs after the first couple activities? How can I better […]

]]> By: Math Teachers at Play #79 | Let's Play Math! /2014/developing-the-question-real-work-v-real-world/#comment-2263240 Wed, 22 Oct 2014 14:03:01 +0000 /?p=21220#comment-2263240 […] us that there’s educational gold in working on “fake world” math problems: Real Work v. Real World. But then Ben Orlin points out several Scenes from the “Real World” Where Math is […]

]]> By: dy/dan » Blog Archive » These Horrible Coin Problems (And What We Can Do About Them) /2014/developing-the-question-real-work-v-real-world/#comment-2247611 Wed, 15 Oct 2014 22:38:32 +0000 /?p=21220#comment-2247611 […] of “solving systems of equations” if I ever saw one. The other fix recognizes that the work is fake also, that “solving a system of equations” is dull, formal, and procedural where […]

]]> By: Day 7: Five Idea Thursday (Neil Stephenson, District Principal) | /2014/developing-the-question-real-work-v-real-world/#comment-2246632 Tue, 14 Oct 2014 22:56:26 +0000 /?p=21220#comment-2246632 […] Real Work v. Real World. A great post by one of my favourite all-time bloggers, Dan Meyer. Dan argues (and I agree) that […]

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