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Those people are called teachers. Generally somewhat expert in their topic. Usually more so than the parents. If a kids approach to homework is to try everyt
by adwf 11y ago
Those people are called teachers. Generally somewhat expert in their topic. Usually more so than the parents.
If a kids approach to homework is to try everything and leave the answers he can't do for mum and dad, he'll be crippled in his learning. The point of homework isn't to get 100%, it's to learn.
- calibraxis 11y agoI tutor people -- I use "tutor" to emphasize individual or small group instruction -- and the idea of mainstream teaching is horrific. I fully agree with the poster learnstats2. For one thing (and this is probably most damning), classes are highly regulated by school administrators. Managers who try to hire obedient teachers. The few teachers who try to slip through are nevertheless horrifically constrainted. Children want to learn; it's a deep human motivation that has to be beaten out of people. The adults I teach have to be scrubbed of so many educational scars and bad habits. If only I had time right now to go into depth of all the antipatterns, the symptoms.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- sethammons 11y agoI think I hear a blog post coming.... ;)
- qntty 11y agoAs mentioned in the article, even teachers can pass on their math anxiety to students (especially female elementary school teachers to their female students). http://hpl.uchicago.edu/sites/hpl.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/PNAS_2010.pdf http://hpl.uchicago.edu/sites/hpl.uchicago.edu/files/uploads...
- jschwartzi 11y agoThis reminds me of a story one of the math professors at the university I attended told once. He said he was standing in a class teaching the Math for Elementary Educators class, when someone asked him why they needed to know 8th grade mathematics. Apparently the elementary school teachers in my state are qualified to teach up to 8th grade, and so he needed to make sure they actually knew 8th grade math.
- sethammons 11y agoThis rings so true for me. My 4th grade teacher took two weeks of "teaching" fractions. Afterwards, she breathed a sigh of relief and said we can now go back to decimals. I avoided "getting" fractions until I was in 2nd semester calculus in high school. I would change all fractions to decimals, solve the problems, and convert the decimals to fractions (since the teacher wanted answers in fractions). Crazy, right? When the lightbulb finally went on, suddenly everything got a lot easier just working with fractions. I took this so much to heart that my daughter was taught exclusively with fractions at first, and only later moved on to decimals. Believe it or not, she actually had trouble grasping decimals at first due to her fraction exposure.
- sanderjd 11y agoThere is a huge difference between parents working on homework with their young children like a tutor would, and a child "trying everything and leaving the answers they can't do for mum and dad". Most parents who are actually interested in the education of their children are likely to do their best to fall into the first camp, though the article discusses that it's harder for parents with less expertise to act as tutors rather than answer-givers.
- marcosdumay 11y agoWouldn't it be great if the selection procedures we have for children teachers didn't make it almost certain that they suck at Math?