Welcome to my blog. I have decided to use this medium to help me express my opinions on current classroom practices in mathematics education. I realize that there is plenty to be said on education itself; from a political, cultural, or pedagogical standpoint. However, my main focus here is on content. It is my opinion that the current methods used to present mathematical content to students is in fact creating more problems than it is solving. In my opinion, mathematics should be about problem solving, abstraction, and training the students' mind so that they may be disciplined, careful, calculating thinkers in their lives. I feel that math educators have let students down in this regard.
Now for the disclaimer. Please note, I do not purport to have all the brilliant answers and/or solutions. I am not speaking from a point of view of many years of fruitful experience, just my humble beginnings. I also understand better than anybody how important assessment is, and the fact that helping students pass tests has (whether we like it or not) become a large part of our jobs. But those issues I reserve for others to discuss (and they certainly do so). The scope for this blog is to be content, and more specifically, the right and wrong ways of teaching specific concepts in mathematics. Most of my experience thus far is in Algebra and Geometry classrooms, so this is the space in which I will mostly be working.
Thank you for your interest, and I welcome your comments and opinions!
Glenn
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