Comments on: Your Mid-Week Must-Read: Why Do Americans Stink At Math

By: What Weâ€™re Reading: Building a better conversation about teaching

What Weâ€™re Reading: Building a better conversation about teaching — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 19:31:11 +0000

[…] A math teacher rounds up some of the research reflected in Elizabeth’s story. (dy/dan) […]

By: Reflections on #TMC14 « Making Sense of Numbers

Reflections on #TMC14 « Making Sense of Numbers — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 04:56:49 +0000

[…] to master a skill. Â I was actually heartened when I read this comment and portion of Dan’s post (link). Â I like to see my students play skill building games because I know some of them are not getting […]

By: Simon Terrell

Simon Terrell — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 03:37:18 +0000

Dan,
I was definitely looking for the cultural differences in those Japanese students, and I suppose that the cultural importance of working hard does come through, but I also saw kids who were disengaged at different times during the lessons, on kids who were being somewhat naughty, so I can’t attribute the total difference in classroom behavior to culture alone.
There is a large amount of time spent on classroom management in the US – in the elementary school with behavior charts and rewards and consequences etc. I saw no evidence of this in the Japanese classroom, the classes were relatively noisy, especially compared to the value placed on quiet and orderly classrooms in many US schools, the kids were engaged.
From teacher debriefs, I really got the feeling that they consider student interest very highly and do not blame the kids if they aren’t engaged, they look at the lesson itself as the culprit.
All in all, it was a wonderful opportunity.

By: Joel Patterson

Joel Patterson — Mon, 28 Jul 2014 21:18:42 +0000

With standardized testing and a demand for results at the end of each year, most teachers wouldn’t be willing to risk their jobs in order to go through the pains and failures of learning to teach this way. That method of too much practice, too much drill on only the kinds of questions on the test--that gets some better results on the upcoming test but it doesn't make for lifelong learners or perpetually curious thinkers. It's what David Perkins calls an "oasis of false promise" for the teacher who is looking for the students to understand the math.

By: dy/dan » Blog Archive » “I would eat the extra meatball.”

dy/dan » Blog Archive » “I would eat the extra meatball.” — Mon, 28 Jul 2014 15:28:29 +0000

[…] Terrell recaps his lesson study trip to Japan with Akihiko Takahashi, who was the subject of Elizabeth Green’s American math […]

By: Dan Goldner

Dan Goldner — Mon, 28 Jul 2014 15:22:13 +0000

“Japanese students initiated the method for solving a problem in 40 percent of the lessons; Americans initiated 9 percent of the time. Similarly, 96 percent of American students’ work fell into the category of “practice,” while Japanese students spent only 41 percent of their time practicing. Almost half of Japanese students’ time was spent doing work that the researchers termed ‘invent/think.’ (American students spent less than 1 percent of their time on it.)”

Off all the great things to focus on in this article, this is the one that spoke to me where I am now. Student-initiated in 40%, not 100%. 41% of time practicing, not 5%. Half the time on invent/think, not all the time on invent/think. I’ve been working so hard on making “invent/think” the dominant activity in my room, that practicing, which is ALSO a cognitive requirement for learning, has been de-emphasized. The next paragraph in the article acknowledges that Japan isn’t perfect, either, and these percentages certainly aren’t a perfect recipe. But as my personal pendulum finds its equilibrium it’s great to read this and take from it the encouragement that that ALL the modes of learning have to have a place during the week.

By: Dan Meyer

Dan Meyer — Mon, 28 Jul 2014 15:18:46 +0000

@Simon, thanks for the recap of your trip. Super helpful.

My assumption about Japan was that their teachers attended less to issues of motivation and engagement because their students enter school with enormous social pressure to succeed academically. Where did my logic break down there?

By: Lecturing: There Are Better Ways ToTeach | Learning and Teaching Math

Lecturing: There Are Better Ways ToTeach | Learning and Teaching Math — Sun, 27 Jul 2014 01:22:21 +0000

[…] why reform efforts in math education in America have not usually produced the desired results. Dan Meyer also mentioned this article on his blog, with some additional references thatÂ may be of […]

By: Simon terrell

Simon terrell — Sat, 26 Jul 2014 20:57:14 +0000

I just returned from Japan on a trip with Dr. Takahashi, and Professor Fuji. Although the article gets the details of lesson study mostly right, there is a lot of effort by teachers to take the mathematics, (I.e. Which numbers to use for a lesson so that solutions will flow more naturally) and make them interesting and meaningful. In the teacher’s lesson plans, they always mentioned that they wanted the students to be eager to solve the problems. Student interest is a major part of the thinking when planning lessons. I saw classrooms that were noisy but the students were always talking about the problem they were solving.
In one case, a teacher was teaching a lesson about division with remainders and the example was packaging meatballs in pack of 4. When faced with the problem of having 13 meatballs and needing 4 per pack, one student’s solution was “I would eat the extra meatball and then they would all fit”. It was so funny and joyful to see that all thinking was welcomed and the teacher artfully led them to the general thinking that she wanted by the end of the lesson.
However, teaching in this way requires a deeper understanding of how children learn mathematics, the deeper elements of mathematics, and an ability to recognize how to take students thinking and make it useful to the whole class. It requires a lot of strategy and thinking in the moment in order to craft a coherent narrative. With standardized testing and a demand for results at the end of each year, most teachers wouldn’t be willing to risk their jobs in order to go through the pains and failures of learning to teach this way.
It was a delight to be in classroom like this, and all except the high school classroom, at several different schools, operated in this way.

By: Kyle Pearce

Kyle Pearce — Sat, 26 Jul 2014 02:46:45 +0000

Dan & Crew,

What a great (but sad) article.

I found it really interesting regarding those with very little education being able to calculate complex problems in their head:

“A 12-year-old boy who accurately computed the price of four coconuts at 35 cruzeiros each was later given the problem on paper. Incorrectly using the multiplication method he was taught in school, he came up with the wrong answer. ”

Lately, I have really been challenging my own beliefs of how students should learn math facts. While I memorized much of the math I learned from K through grade 12, I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit that it wasn’t until I began teaching that I learned strategies to do more complex calculations in my head. I was the opposite of the 12-year-old boy in the article. I could do anything on paper via procedure, but would have sweat to do the calculations on the fly in the market.

Even though I believe there is no single way to teach mathematics effectively, at least Dan and others like him are helping the masses realize that “traditional” isn’t one of those effective ways.