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I used to tutor folks in basic math classes at a small community college, mostly classes leading up to college algebra (Math 097, 098). Varied backgrounds, ages
by ppseafield 8y ago
I used to tutor folks in basic math classes at a small community college, mostly classes leading up to college algebra (Math 097, 098). Varied backgrounds, ages 18-50s.
There was a common theme to some of the problems these students had: if you didn't quickly grasp a concept in the specific way that particular teacher taught it, the class would soon move on to the next topic anyways. And sometimes teachers would not teach one particular thing very well, but it was something the rest of the class's instruction depended on. This left people adrift for the rest of the curriculum. If they took the class over again, they could get stuck at the same point because the class moved at the same pace, often with the same instructor. That's both incredibly frustrating and a huge waste of time and money!
- CalRobert 8y agoSeriously! I took trig and nobody ever said "Here's a picture of a circle. Here's what cosine, sine, and tangent are". I had no clue what those concepts were for at least a year, but I managed because I always knew I could take both sine and cosine and say "well I need the bigger number in this scenario ∂or the smaller one in that one, so it must be (cos or sin)" When I saw a picture of a circle and an angle that basically said "Cosine is how far you are horizontally and sine is how far you are vertically" it was so damned simple I hated that I hadn't learned sooner. How did I miss it? Was I sick that day?
- jononor 8y agoMaybe we should have 'intuition checks'? A kind of test (not graded) that regularly checks that key intuitive concept have been learned? Like show a circle and ask to place the sin,cos..