Friday, January 30, 2009

Should Math Be Told to Students or Learned by Students in Elementary Schools?

During my elementary school experience, I feel that I was not given the best tools to build a great foundation for a math basis. It varied from teacher to teacher and grade to grade as to whether my skills in math were strengthened of weakened. I usually made good grades, but I feel I was never pushed to answer questions through my own reasoning. Most of my experience of math was learned through a type of memorization. A problem would be presented on the board to follow step by step. When I came across a math problem in a different context I froze. I would constantly try to think back to that one example problem instead of reasoning about the situation on my own. I specifically remember math always being told to me and not learned by me. Formulas were written in the book and example problems were worked out for me on the board. As a result math has always been a frustration subject for me. It is important each year for children and me as an upcoming teacher, to understand math because it is a subject that builds from year to year. Since I was never given a great basis into the math world, it has hindered me from growing and loving the subject as much as I would have liked. However, now every year was disastrous and through my math classes I was able to pick up good and bad teaching methods that I can learn from when I become a teacher of my own.
I am and have always been under the impression that the traditional math or what I call "told math" is how math is suppose to be learned by students. My eight grade teacher of algebra ruined math for me all together. I remember that he would always give us an example problem and the load us down with problems that resembled the example. We would continue to do the problems until we not only were exhausted from math but also had memorized how to get the solution. The next week or even by the next test, I had forgotten all about that night's homework. I did not learn the material it was told to me. I feel that if I had come up with how to get the solution on my own then I would not have to keep looking up and following example problems, but could figure it out with my own created knowledge. Ninth grade geometry was not any better, but something different for me to struggle with. My teacher gave out worksheets for us to do in class and typically did not allow group work or interaction I tended to get nervous when speaking to the teacher because he always put up an intimidating front. Proofs and angles were hard for me to pick up and easily became one of my most difficult math moments. I believe that I can learn and grow from this classroom situation. Now I know that these are all high school examples but can be used for teachers of all ages how to teach math properly. During my college years I have been given the opportunity in which I myself had to tutor and help third graders with math homework and understanding. I tried hard not to simply give the children the answers but to question them through the thinking process. However I have realized that doing this allows for much time and patience and it is very tempting to show them exactly how it is done and let them follow my lead. This experience has taught me much about the time that goes in to teaching a good and thoughtful math lesson. You have to allow time for the children to think. They need to be able to reason on their own and eventually through much thought and teacher facilitating questions will reach a solution. Time is also used to fix mistakes.
By reflecting on my own experiences I do see the flaws and strengths of my past math experiences and how they will help me become a better teacher in the near future. I believe that teaching math can be a balance between traditional and most constructivist methods. For example learning certain formulas is important, but knowing how,why and where they stem from is something that reform teaching touches more on. This balance for the two approaches will help children build a better math lifestyle in the long term. As elementary teacher which method of teaching math do you think is the best?

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