January 19 - Independence = Success

What is the goal of a middle school and high school mathematics education? Why do students learn math in the first place? There’s the obvious: they learn to use that information for future college classes and careers. But not everyone is going to need to know the equation of a sphere or SOHCAHTOA in the future. So, as far as I can tell, the two most broad goals of mathematics education are as follows:

1. To teach mathematics (i.e. the processes, terminology, and concepts)
2. To help students develop rational, logical, creative, and spatial thought processes

The second one is something I had not thought about until I arrived at college and began to learn upper division mathematics alongside education methods and philosophies. So many students complain about how they learn math and will never use that knowledge again. But what they don’t understand is that in the process of learning the formulas and word problems and procedures, that were teaching their brains good habits (as I like to think of it). And this is where literacy, including mathematical literacy, comes in handy.

Up until high school, my mom homeschooled me and my siblings. I loved the experience but also loved my time in high school and slipping in to the schedule of multiple classes and multiple teachers. One thing I learned while I was homeschooled was self-education. And this was one of the most important skills that my mom made me learn. In middle school, it was my responsibility to read the chapter, lesson, or textbook, do the homework, and ask my mom for assitance when needed. I did most of my school this way. From what I have experienced, learned, and read, the school system is not often like this.  The Beuhl text reveals the general trend of education in most classrooms, “Students rely predominately on teacher telling and explanation for their learning of new content” (p 41-42). And I experienced this in high school. I used to think that if the teacher didn’t teach us something directly, they had no right to expect us to know that information. But, as I have studied education and thought about my philosophy of teaching, I think that being able to learn something or problem solve independently is crucial to succeed in college and beyond.

Teachers are doing their students a disservice when their expectations are low and they do not teach their students to figure out new concepts on their own or with peers. The results of this kind of teaching are explained in chapter one of Beuhl’s text, “However, homework is predicated on independent behavior, when students are asked to independently do a task when they are not yet accomplished, they will likely fail” (p 28). The author goes on to highlight how many students have lifelines when they can not figure out homework or a project. These lifelines might take the shape of a parent, friend, or the internet. But not every child have parents always there to ask for assistance, readily available friends to collaborate with, or the taken-for-granted internet. This is why teaching students independent learning skills, especially in math, is pivotal.

I’d like to end with a final observation from chapter one where Beuhl writes about academic identity. I think it is safe to assume that if a student is taught to learn mathematics (or any other subject for that matter) or figure out homework independently, they would never say, “I am the kind of student who does not get math” or “I am the kind of student who will not understand even if I try” (p 7-8).