The Seattle P-I recently had an article about a group of University of Washington faculty members who are very concerned about what they perceive as the declining math skills of students entering the University of Washington. Here is a link to that article: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/353199_math29.html .
There is controversy about the “best” way to teach mathematics. Some feel that it is better to emphasize a discovery-based approach to mathematics; others recommend going back to an approach where formulas and algorithms are memorized.
In any case, it is important to remember that the best way to learn mathematics is to actually do mathematics. Also, discovery in mathematics should be strongly encouraged, but in reality, most of us did not “discover” that the area of a circle is PI times the square of the radius.
Here are a couple of excellent books that are relevant. The first is “How to Solve It” by George Polya. It is an old book (published in 1945) but still excellent, with lots of tips and techniques for solving math problems when you feel stuck. The second book is “Innumeracy” by John Allen Paulos, which presents many fascinating and entertaining math-related examples.
Richard Fuhr
March 3, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Surely the Best way to scaffold math learning is whichever way works for each individual learner. I’m not trying to be funny: I help people learn math every day, and use wide variety of tools and tactics. It really only takes a minute – well, okay, 5 minutes – to see whether or not an explanation or approach is working. If it isn’t, then it’s time to try something else.
Now, if the question is about the “best” way to build a group curriculum to be imposed on everybody – that wacko kind of factory-line teaching that’s supposed to provide for consistently high test scores – then I have no suggestions. Well… other than thinking differently about how you vote.
June 3, 2008 at 9:01 am
As a tutor of math and science and reading I am happy that some interest is being taken in math tutoring. My feeling has always been that the source of the math block is teachers who know little math and also have a block which is passed on to students. I do not blame the teachers, rather I hope that they understand this and learn the methods and the sources of information (some you mentioned) to improve their own skills.