“Math Sense” Makes You Feel Stupid — Oh, The Irony !
Not just students feel stupid; parents trying to help with homework are made to feel stupid also. Two generations. What’s the game plan?
Isn’t education supposed to make you feel capable? Not dumbed down? Not feeling stupid?
And, let’s remember Daisy’s book — Seven Myths about Education — saying that much of 21st Century Learning is really about pushing an ideological bias into schools. These self-appointed 21st C reformers see their methods as a corrective to right wing and elitist culture. Really?
Who can find the best description of what the New Utopia would look like if 21st C initiatives in Canada and Common Core in the US were fully implemented? What is the vision?
Nonetheless: Here is a Report that should stop the Discovery Learning in Math in its tracks. See: Decline of Canadian students’ math skills the fault of ‘discovery learning’: C.D. Howe Institute http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/decline-of-canadian-students-math-skills-the-fault-of-discovery-learning-c-d-howe-institute
Quotes:
– Canada fell out of the top 10 countries for math in 2012.
– the curriculum balance should be tilted in favour of direct instructional methods, recommending an 80/20 split as a rule of thumb.
– elementary school teachers in training should be required to take two semester-long courses at university in math with the aim of deepening their grasp of the concepts they will be teaching.
– Provinces should also consider making elementary teachers-to-be write a test in that same content before they’re licensed.
The comments are worth reading.