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> All students deserve powerful mathematics; we reject ideas of natural gifts and talents (Cimpian et al, 2015; Boaler, 2019) and the “cult of the genius” (Elle
by jimbokun 5y ago
> All students deserve powerful mathematics; we reject ideas of natural gifts and talents (Cimpian et al, 2015; Boaler, 2019) and the “cult of the genius” (Ellenberg, 2015).
could be replaced with:
> All students deserve powerful mathematics.
and still make the same pedagogical point, that all students should be taught with the expectation they will succeed at learning mathematical concepts.
Putting the emphasis on believing people do not differ in natural ability, is obviously false and therefor detracts from the overall goal.
- dzdt 5y agoThe point they are making is that the belief that one must be "gifted" to learn math is a damaging and destructive belief: it leads students who could otherwise be successful to not try and not learn, and this affects most to students who are marginalized in other ways. The rejection of "ideas of natural gifts" is rejecting that success in math is tied to natural gifts (as opposed to say hard work or careful study.) It is not rejecting the idea that some students will have an easier or harder time learning!
- pishpash 5y agoThen they should just write that, but they didn't, either consciously or subconsciously.
- dzdt 5y agoThey did. The paragraph I quoted above defines what they mean by the word "gifts" very explicitly: > “gifts”—the concept that people need a special ability to be successful in a particular field
- zajio1am 5y ago> as opposed to say hard work Perhaps ability to consistently do hard work is also a natural gift.