On teaching and learning math

I was about to turn off my tech and go to bed when I noticed this article pop up on my Twitter feed and was hit by a wave of despair. Mostly because this is all that people will want to ask me about for the next week, but also because of the content itself.

I am a math teacher. And a science teacher, and a disability strategist who is passionate about learning and cognition. I consider it part of my role on this planet to make at least a few less people hate math and I think I do a pretty good job of this. I am passionate about changing our math-phobic society. And I am passionate about good education.Which means people want me to tell them how I feel about this discussion, and mostly how I feel is annoyed.

Education is trend based and follows extreme pendulum swings. The problem is every student's brain works differently. By going with these switches back and forth we continually miss the point - a balanced approach will give all students at least a starting point. The problem isn't discovery learning, the problem is PURE discovery learning.

When I took my IPT class in math education I found it incredibly frustrating because the instructors wanted us to buy into pure discovery learning. They didn't even want to tell us what our midterm was worth because they wanted our class to also be discovery learning - when you are paying that much money for credits this is pretty not okay. I sat through many activities where my brain just wasn't working in the way I needed and felt really really dumb. When they talked about not telling the students the answers in the end because then they won't bother with the discovery I was furious - if I was frustrated and felt dumb I couldn't even imagine how a student who already dislikes and fears math would feel. Pure discovery approach doesn't work for all students and can just increase anxiety.

Pure rote approach is no better. Just learning facts without having to piece it together and join the dots yourself leads to surface level and shallow learning without developing the thinking skills that modern day employers (and educational institutions) are looking for. Beyond that, for many of the students I work with this type of memorization is simply  not possible. Facts without meaning don't count as learning, it counts as regurgitation.


So what should we do? We should balance discovery learning with rote practice. We should teach students HOW to learn, not just what they need to learn. If we actually teach the thinking skills required for learning and problem solving and innovative solutions then students won't face the same anxiety as I did when faced with discovery tasks. And by having students practice the skills they can master the basics that they need for later learning and build confidence. It isn't an exclusive or situation. It isn't an or situation at all. It's an AND situation.