After a single class of EDCI 6540 I have made some assumptions, seen some true colors, and even reiterated why I'm in the program in the first place. Not bad for a first day huh?
The 'radical' ideas of Dr.Matthews make me wonder if I am 'radical'. I thought the way I thought of learning and teaching was just the way it was. Apparently again I am an odd duck of sorts. Some of my classmates believe there are rules that must be followed. The notion of the new math teacher seems like it will be an uphill battle for some. But for me I don't see why it wasn't this way in the first place. I learned math the same way that they did: watch the teacher do it, copy it exactly and mirror it on the test. At the time it didn't matter to me one way or the other as math was a means to my scientific end. The light came on for me as a tutor in a seventh grade classroom my senior year at Ga Tech. The teacher whom I respect as a person was covering pi. He explained that pi was the circumference of a circle over its diameter. A female student who was uninterested in the class and proclaimed along with many others that she hated, a student who I admit didn't seem like a particularly bright star, said 'so its just a ratio?' Oh my GOD, I thought. That's amazing! I had never thought of that and perhaps had never been taught but this unlikely genius dropped this little nugget like a hot potato. The teacher said 'yeh' and continued with his lecture, completely unphased. It made me ill that her spark was not kindled in fact it was snuffed out. Thanks a lot, I thought.
The purpose of education is not regurgitation. We don't just want robots programmed to repeat what we say word for word, do we? Where would Einstein have been? If Galileo were forced to think only inside a box would we now have the scientific method to follow?
If students can only focus on what is being taught then how exactly will the subject matter evolve. Several years ago a student at Paideia private school made a discovery concerning the Pythagorean theorem. Wow! I thought. How amazing. Can that happen in a public, predominately Black, middle class to low class school? It can and it will if the notion of the 'new math teacher' is embraced. Otherwise we'll continue to follow while others lead, just like we are taught.
1 comment:
Fatimah I really enjoyed your blog I think that you have experienced some the genuine idealogy of construtivism. The true creation of understanding through connections that are made by the student is a revolutionary concept for mathematics and I think you explained why that is critically needed now.
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