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Re: Gender Blocks in Math
Posted:
Jul 23, 2002 11:12 PM
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I think that the conservative estimate is that >90% of the population
would say that they are not good at mathematics! What a success rate!
Is there any other subject that engenders such a sense of failure?
People judge their competence by what they can't do rather than by
what they can do! (What I can't do doesn't stop me enjoying a round of
golf!) Controversially I think that such statements of failure make
those who are good at mathematics feel special and this pervades how
we teach. Do we really expect all students to enjoy mathematics like
we expect students to enjoy, say, exercise or singing? Or do we see
mathematics teaching as being a process of winnowing to produce the
best at a very narrow range of skills? How narrowly do we define
mathematics? To use the previous analogy, is mathematics defined like
football or is it defined like exercise?
If we define mathematics as being the study of pattern, and pattern
within pattern, and the acquiring of a language for describing
pattern, then we legitimize a lot of approaches and fields in
mathematics that will attract many more students. It now makes
spatial properties, queuing theories, statistical studies, financial
prediction, relevant and equally important with algebra and calculus
(maybe more important!).
How to deal with students who have a negative attitude?
Provide tasks that interest the students despite themselves. The more
practical and interesting the task is, the more the students will
forget their negative attitude. Group investigations help. Technology
like interactive geometry and CAS and concrete activities also work.
Don't teach the students as if they are all the same. Repetitive drill
reinforces who is "best" all the way down to who is "worst". If most
class work and assessment is done this way, students automatically
rank themselves, and following current culture, if you are not amongst
the "best" them you are not good at it! Repetitive drill just
emphasizes rote learning and stops thinking. (Repetitive drill has a
place when it is agreed that a particular skill has to be committed to
memory, but is not the key activity of mathematics any more than
basketball is about lay-ups and only lay-ups)
Encourage looking for patterns, approximation and making conjectures.
Everyone can do this, and if a student can come up with something that
none else has thought of, they feel good. This is what we should be
encouraging; opportunities for every student to make a meaningful
contribution. If there is only one right answer, there are winners and
losers; who got it first and who got it last. Can you imagine an art
class or a literature class functioning on "right answers"?
No, I'm not saying that all answers are equal. The best teaching is
done when encouraging students to refine and improve their answers,
but there are many times when we encourage students to think that
there is only one answer possible. Imagine teaching a lesson on
linear graphs. Is y=2x+6 a better answer than y-2x=6? So often we act
as if it is!. It depends on the situation. Most students have never
been encouraged to think about this and yet it is liberating for them!
Now I will get off my soapbox!
>On 23 Jul 2002, LeeAnn McMahon: wrote:
>>My brother received his degree in Math. Up until 6th grade, I
>>excelled in this subject, but in 7th grade, I found it was easier to
>>interject the "I'm just not good in Math!" excuss rather that
>honestly
>>trying to understand it. My parents accepted this excuss and
>>instilled in me then that "girls aren't good in Math, but boys
>>understand it."
>>
>>Are there any intructors out there who experience this in the
>>classroom, and if so, how do you overcome it?
>>
>>LeeAnn
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