Math Education Thoughts

Problem-based Learning in Mathematics
PRS, teaching, high school math Chris Wright PRS, teaching, high school math Chris Wright

Problem-based Learning in Mathematics

Five years ago, after three years of teaching Geometry at PRS, I went searching for a way to improve. I felt strongly that the method I was using – lecturing over a section of the textbook in class, going over some sample problems that practiced those skills, and then assigning practice homework problems that exercised those skills – was not only not satisfying to me as a way for my students to experience doing mathematics, but it was targeting relatively unimportant areas of learning for my students. Given that my students would almost certainly forget half of the theorems they learned after a year, and more than 90% of those theorems after four years, I wanted to identify teaching methods that would target deeper, more meaningful and longer lasting, areas of growth.

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Why teach mathematics?
teaching Chris Wright teaching Chris Wright

Why teach mathematics?

Traditionally, the rationale for learning mathematics has been focused on students acquiring skills – such as learning times tables or solving equations or doing long division. This also has been driven by students asking: “how will we ever use this in real life?”  - beleaguered math teachers have given reasons such as balancing a checkbook or understanding your car loan. This is like an art teacher who teaches painting focusing on color names and brush strokes, with a central aim of being able to paint a house. There are useful ways to apply the skills of mathematics, but learning mathematics for that reason alone has been the historical downfall of mathematical education and misses the beauty and deeper value of the discipline. 

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Dear parents,
Chris Wright Chris Wright

Dear parents,

It is saddening that, unlike all the other disciplines taught through high school, mathematics has historically not been taught in the way that professionals in the discipline do their work.

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Problem solving
teaching, whitepaper Chris Wright teaching, whitepaper Chris Wright

Problem solving

An essential part of mathematics is finding patterns, posing questions about those patterns, and then solving the problems posed by those questions. As those problems are investigated, further interesting questions may naturally arise and lead to beautiful and intriguing developments for further investigation. Problem solving is at the heart of doing mathematics.

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