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Re: Information on New Models for Developmental Math (Pathways; New Life)
Posted:
Apr 4, 2012 10:28 AM
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On Apr 4, 2012, at 7:49 AM, Philip Mahler wrote:
> Thank you Wayne. In retrospect it makes sense to me that semester
> after semester of remedial math cannot possibly promote retention
> unless a student is very motivated and has a specific goal, probably
> a career goal. Although most math educators cannot relate to it,
> many if not most students really just don?t like math. Or, to be
> more precise, math classes in which they feel they are unlikely to
> succeed. So a long list of semesters of it must be quite daunting.
>
> And that?s why I like New Life / PathWays. They focus on the time
> element of the program, and do things many think should be done
> anyway, in a two year college: teach only, or mostly, math content
> that will help a student pass their program?s math benchmark, be it
> numeracy, modeling, stats, math for poets, or yes, Calculus II ? but
> not beyond that, as a requirement.
>
> There was a question about the math content of these programs.
> Personally I don?t need it itemized. I need to know what the
> benchmark course is. When the student passes that course, I know
> what math they have learned by the content of that course.
>
> I hasten to add that I believe all of this in the universe in which
> I teach in an open door community college. Mostly students with a
> poor record in math classes, who are close to making career choices.
> They pretty much know whether they are STEM or not, for example. I
> would not advocate the same for a high school curriculum because the
> career path tree is too close to the base at that point.
I never asked for the "contents of these programs to be itemized" if
only because this is precisely what I keep objecting to in the current
mathematics curriculum: that it is itemized, nay, pulverized, nay,
atomized into "math".
It is precisely this pervasive notion of mathematics as "math" which
creates the problem that it claims to be solving. Here is how it works:
(1) In high school, we present/teach "math", that is a list of
of completely disconnected items/topics which can only be memorized.
The students cannot make head or tail of the stuff and start hating it.
(2) Then they come to CC where they are "test-placed" into, say,
"Prealgebra" so that, aside from feeling "dissed", should they have
the audacity to contemplate, say, Differential Calculus, they are
facing a very, very long sequence. In any case, we present again
essentially the same "math", i.e. the same list of completely
disconnected items/topics which can only be memorized.
(3) They are NOT "making career choices" any more than I choose
not to fly to the moon. They are not in a position even to get close
to, say, Differential Calculus. They are just making do with the
choices that they are given. Can there really be people who CHOOSE to
be a street cleaner rather than to be a brain surgeon?
(4) We explain all this away by saying that "many if not most
students really just don?t like math" or "math classes in which they
feel they are unlikely to succeed". Either way, we thus feel that this
is not our fault because the students "just don?t like math" or, to
put it bluntly, just don't have the brains. We do not want to see that
what we present to our students is NOT mathematics---just "math", just
a list of items/topics which can only be memorized.
(5) We are careful not to see that WE are precisely the ones who
set it up that way and so all we can think of is how to sweeten the
bitter pill for our students with the latest pathway to a new life---
but bitter the pill remains as it has for the past forty years. Could
it be that the real reason is that we want "the great unwashed
masses" to stay that way so that WE can continue to shine by contrast?
Or is it just that we lack the imagination to see things differently?
Or is it that we just don't like mathematics---as opposed to "math"?
But, in my experience, human beings like things to make sense so that,
when they can make sense of things, they will start wanting more
things to make sense. Whenever given the least chance, human beings
will try to systematize, to generalize, to compare things, etc. And
THAT is mathematics.
Regards
--schremmer
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