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I hear this "let's change math education" often. But how do you propose to do it?

beej71 5y ago
A lot of the attempts at teaching Common Core math that I looked at were far superior to my experience in the 80s/90s. I was taught math wrongly. Like the GP, I didn't grow to appreciate it like I do today until years after the fact... and I got a math minor! But really what I'd like to see is math taught in a far more granular way. Weekly chunks that were pass/no-pass. If you didn't get it, repeat the week. If you got it, progress to the next week. If you have _n_ weeks of math done, great, you get a HS diploma. If you have _m_, you have a minor, etc. And I'm saying "math", but that could be broken down into subspecialities. You don't qualify for precalc week 1 until you've reached Trig Week 12 and Geometry Week 8, or whatever. Weeks could be "challenged", as well, if you were able to skip ahead. And there'd be no need for a gifted program. (Such programs--I was in one--always sat the wrong way with me. Like it was an artifact of bad structural design of the education system.) Anyway, that's what I'd do if I were king. In fact, I'd change every subject to use this model. (HT Kahn Academy and their flipped-classroom work.)
- skyde 5y ago
  what do you mean by flipped-classroom work?
  - ivansavz 5y ago
    I'm assuming you don't know what the term means in general, not specific to beej71's comment Flipped classroom = instructional approach in which "lectures" are pre-recorded and watched by students and home, while class time is used for discussions and solving problems (individually or in groups). The term flipped is used because what you do "homework" in class, and watch "class lectures" at home. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipped_classroom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipped_classroom
    - skyde 5y ago
      Thanks a lot for the explanation. This make a lot of sense now.
- threatofrain 5y ago
  California largely does not have the same kind of gifted and talented program as NYC, which was recently discussed. Rather, students have multiple chances to move forward based on their performance on standardized tests.
- Viliam1234 5y ago
  > But really what I'd like to see is math taught in a far more granular way. I really like your proposal! (And not just for math; any subject could be taught this way.) Problem is, if everyone advances in a different way, it is no longer possible to have 20-30 kids in the classroom listening to the same lecture. Because one of them is today at week 1, another at week 2, etc. So now you need to learn from books or computer. > And there'd be no need for a gifted program. We would need some bonus "weeks" that are not meant for the average student, but the matematically gifted students could take them. First, students should be able to take "weeks" typically meant for older students, even if that meant that gifted kids at elementary school would take lessons meant for high school students. Second, there could be alternative lessons exploring the topic in greater depth, or exploring connections between various topics. Third, there could be optional lessons with topics that are normally not taught at all. All three of these should be available, not just the first one (although even that would be way better than nothing, which is what we have now). To give an example of a deeper lesson, while average students learn e.g. that binary numbers exist, and maybe learn to convert from decimal to binary and vice versa, gifted students could also learn to do addition and multiplication directly in binary. An example of a topic typically not taught could be set theory, or game theory.
  - beej71 5y ago
    > So now you need to learn from books or computer. Or, since I'm King, I propose we hire enough well-paid teachers to cover our needs. But actually in the inverted classroom model, you have video lesson "homework" (what we think of as the lecture) and then the students come to class to do exercises. The teacher becomes more of a tutor. So one teacher could still cover students within a few weeks of each other. And I definitely like the idea of a week having the minimum work and a pile of bonus work for the over achievers.

A lot of the attempts at teaching Common Core math that I looked at were far superior to my experience in the 80s/90s. I was taught math wrongly. Like the GP, I didn't grow to appreciate it like I do today until years after the fact... and I got a math minor! But really what I'd like to see is math taught in a far more granular way. Weekly chunks that were pass/no-pass. If you didn't get it, repeat the week. If you got it, progress to the next week. If you have _n_ weeks of math done, great, you get a HS diploma. If you have _m_, you have a minor, etc. And I'm saying "math", but that could be broken down into subspecialities. You don't qualify for precalc week 1 until you've reached Trig Week 12 and Geometry Week 8, or whatever. Weeks could be "challenged", as well, if you were able to skip ahead. And there'd be no need for a gifted program. (Such programs--I was in one--always sat the wrong way with me. Like it was an artifact of bad structural design of the education system.) Anyway, that's what I'd do if I were king. In fact, I'd change every subject to use this model. (HT Kahn Academy and their flipped-classroom work.)

skyde 5y ago
what do you mean by flipped-classroom work?
- ivansavz 5y ago
  I'm assuming you don't know what the term means in general, not specific to beej71's comment Flipped classroom = instructional approach in which "lectures" are pre-recorded and watched by students and home, while class time is used for discussions and solving problems (individually or in groups). The term flipped is used because what you do "homework" in class, and watch "class lectures" at home. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipped_classroom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipped_classroom
  - skyde 5y ago
    Thanks a lot for the explanation. This make a lot of sense now.
threatofrain 5y ago
California largely does not have the same kind of gifted and talented program as NYC, which was recently discussed. Rather, students have multiple chances to move forward based on their performance on standardized tests.
Viliam1234 5y ago
> But really what I'd like to see is math taught in a far more granular way. I really like your proposal! (And not just for math; any subject could be taught this way.) Problem is, if everyone advances in a different way, it is no longer possible to have 20-30 kids in the classroom listening to the same lecture. Because one of them is today at week 1, another at week 2, etc. So now you need to learn from books or computer. > And there'd be no need for a gifted program. We would need some bonus "weeks" that are not meant for the average student, but the matematically gifted students could take them. First, students should be able to take "weeks" typically meant for older students, even if that meant that gifted kids at elementary school would take lessons meant for high school students. Second, there could be alternative lessons exploring the topic in greater depth, or exploring connections between various topics. Third, there could be optional lessons with topics that are normally not taught at all. All three of these should be available, not just the first one (although even that would be way better than nothing, which is what we have now). To give an example of a deeper lesson, while average students learn e.g. that binary numbers exist, and maybe learn to convert from decimal to binary and vice versa, gifted students could also learn to do addition and multiplication directly in binary. An example of a topic typically not taught could be set theory, or game theory.
- beej71 5y ago
  > So now you need to learn from books or computer. Or, since I'm King, I propose we hire enough well-paid teachers to cover our needs. But actually in the inverted classroom model, you have video lesson "homework" (what we think of as the lecture) and then the students come to class to do exercises. The teacher becomes more of a tutor. So one teacher could still cover students within a few weeks of each other. And I definitely like the idea of a week having the minimum work and a pile of bonus work for the over achievers.