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Quality over Quantity: A New idea for Math Education « Zen5.me Zen5.meWell-nighZen5.me   RSS   Quality over Quantity: A New idea for Math Education 08 Aug Twitter0Facebook0Pinterest0Google+0“I can’t do Math,” you hear this said over and over by children and adults alike.  It is plane “acceptable” to tout that “math isn’t your thing.  You don’t hear people saying, “I can’t read,” yet it is okay to scrutinizingly brag that you can’t do mathematics.  Why is math such a nonflexible subject for our country?  When and how does it fall apart?  As a math educator, I see so many solutions to our national math slipperiness that have just never been tried.  We unchangingly seem to just play virtually with the ideas of “the basics,” learning the concepts overdue the mathematics (conceptual learning, new math, mathematical modeling), and procedural learning (very similar to the “basics” in many ways.)  All those things are important and we have a problem of tending to lean to one side vs. the other rather than keeping a reasonable wastefulness between the two.  However, what I see as the biggest problem is looking at, “what is our ultimate goal?”  When I read an vendible that says a CaliforniaHigherhas washed-up yonder with the requirement that all students must show mastery in Intermediate Algebra for higher considering non-STEM students don’t need math, it gets me thinking.   If non-STEM majors don’t need math, then do STEM majors no longer need to take literature classes and humanities classes required in the unstipulated education classes, these are not “needed” for their majors?  Why do undergraduate degrees require students to take unstipulated education classes in wing to their major focus?  We know the answer. It is the same reason why upper schools require 4 English classes, 4 Math classes, 3-4 Science classes, 3-4 History classes, etc., in order to make a well rounded educated person.  Just like English, knowing math provides a level of competence for getting virtually in the world, it allows you to think critically, math is used in many places that kids don’t realize until they get to be an adult.  Adults who truly understand Intermediate Algebra, will be worldly-wise to make increasingly sound financial decisions in their own personal financial choices.   Additionally, Intermediate Algebra as a prerequisite for a higher level math course, shouldn’t be too nonflexible since Intermediate Algebra is a matriculation that should be mastered in upper school.  So, why is a upper school math giving higher students so much trouble that a higher has to waif a upper school remedial math matriculation requirement?  This is considering how we currently teach upper school math is a failure.  Let’s squatter it, some students will struggle increasingly with mathematical concepts and others will move on and take Calculus 3 surpassing graduating upper school.  There is nothing wrong with either student but we act like there is and we need to stop this.  We need to stop putting on kids on the same math trajectory and expecting it to work.     My feeling is that the goal for graduation of upper is to pass, with a B or better, Intermediate Algebra (which should replace tedious useless work with real world knowledge like understanding the Normal Distribution so you can talk intelligently well-nigh IQ scores and statistical research as well as linking concepts to real world like amortization tables for car loans and mortgages, these ideas are increasingly important that long semester of polynomials and subtracting rational fractions which is tedious.)  Students should be worldly-wise to take the “slow path” to math if they need it where they learn the main topics in Algebra 1, some lighter topics in Algebra 2, and some of the vital ideas of Geometry (no geometric proofs).  The goal would be mastery of these topics at a B level.  Anyone graduating should be ready to prove their understanding to a higher prerequisite test and be ready for a Pre-Calculus class, although, if they are not a STEM major, they may segregate Statistics or Financial Math.     Right now, in NC, we require students to take 4 years of math.  They start learning Algebra 1 concepts as early as middle school so that once in upper school, they are once learning topics in Algebra 1, Geometry, and some starter Statistical topics.  By Math 2, they are stuff introduced to Trigonometry, Algebra 2, Probability, increasingly Geometry, including proofs, and a small value of what used to be in Pre-Calculus.  By Math 3, the students are finishing Algebra 2, finishing Geometry, taking on increasingly topics from Pre-Calculus, and subtracting in increasingly Statistical topics.  After Math 3, students must take a fourth math course.  Most non Honors students take Intro toHighermath, which ends up stuff a review of Algebra topics or Discrete Math, which goes into Probability, Statistics, and Decision Making.  If students were mastering all these topics, this would be wonderful but students are barely grasping all of this.  We need to slow it lanugo and cut out the fourth class, cut stuff from Math 1-3, and although still require 4 full years (not semester blocks) of math for the non-Honors track but focus on QUALITY of instruction and MASTERY of learning, rather than QUANTITY of material we can “say” they were exposed to.  We will have students who learn more, are less stressed, and have a higher success rate in future math courses in college.   Students who are on the Honors track, can protract to be on their own schedule as they should not be slowed down.  They can meet that upper school requirement while in middle school, take the “test” showing mastery and once they get to upper school, they can be moving on to learning the missing pieces from Algebra 2, Geometry (with proofs), and move into modeling classes or Pre Calculus, Calculus, Statistics, and beyond.   Written by: Lynne Gregorio, Ph.D. Mathematics Education   No Comments Posted in Education   Tags: algebra math, noon math, CA intermediate algebra, higher math prerequisite, worldwide core, upper school math, how good are schools in nc, i can't do math, integrated math, intermediate algebra prerequisite, Math, math curriculum, nc upper school math, nc math 1, nc math 2, nc math 3, nc math curriculum, nc math sucks, north carolina math, wcpss, wcpss middle school math, why math sucks Leave a Reply Click here to cancel reply. 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