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People have different learning styles, and for whatever reason the general population is better at 'concrete' thinking than at 'abstract' thinking (research sez
by 8bitsrule 2y ago
People have different learning styles, and for whatever reason the general population is better at 'concrete' thinking than at 'abstract' thinking (research sez).
When I read about that research, I remembered when I first taught a 9th-grade general math class. I tried teaching fractions the way I was taught ... but after several days, a test showed it just wasn't working at all. Frustrating for most too.
One day about a week later I drew a box on the blackboard, and called it one dollar (still worth something at the time.)
I then drew a single vertical line through it, pointed at the left half and asked 'what's this worth?' Slight delay ... '50 cents?' Then I added a horizontal line, pointed at the upper right corner: 'what's this worth?' Soon it was becoming easy! Sixths, eighths... 'take away 3 sevenths, what's left? ... After a couple more hours of this, most of the class easily solved 'simplify 3 sixths' or 'how many quarters to make 2 and a half'. Every few weeks later, we revisited to see what stuck.
Works the same in the sciences, for many anyway.
- omega3 2y ago> first taught a 9th-grade general math class This blows my mind. The kids in the US don't learn/know simple fractions until they are ±15yo? In Europe I believe it's around 9-10 years old which is still late considering I've had it when I was 7 or 8.
- wheels 2y agoYeah, there's something off in the story. I went to public schools in one of the most poorly educated cities in the US and of course we were doing fractions when we were 7. 9th grade (admittedly "honors", so about a year ahead of non-honors students) was geometry / trigonometry. For non-honors I believe that was algebra.
- Loughla 2y agoMy kids started learning fractions at age 7 in a very under resourced, rural school. Something about op's story smells funny.
- stephencanon 2y agoI went to a rural public school in the US, we did fractions in 4th grade (~9-10 years old). 9th graders learning fractions sounds highly unusual.
- nkrisc 2y agoIntroducing fractions in 9th grade is not typical in the US either. I would charitably guess the commenter is mis-remembering or there were special circumstances, like it being a remedial course for kids who were far behind in their academic achievement. Usually it’s around 2nd or 3rd grade, though I don’t recall exactly as I’m not an educator and my kids aren’t that old yet.
- vertnerd 2y agoAs a former high school math teacher, I interpreted "general math" as a class intended for students who have not been successful with the typical grade-level math curriculum. That is a situation where teachers need to get creative with instructional approaches.
- abecedarius 2y agoFractions were certainly in the curriculum earlier, but were they learned? I'm sure my high school calculus cohort understood them, but I'm not sure the average adult can add fractions confidently. Those who don't are going to weigh down any math class after that point. (I'm not blaming people traumatized by early math schooling. I just think there are many.)