Instrumental and relational, necessary and arbitrary, and
skills and relationships, no matter the labels, are reoccurring topics of
discussion in mathematics education. Brahier and Hoffman’s comparison of the
American and Japanese approach to math education again emphasize the positive
and negative aspects to memorization and conceptual understanding.
It is becoming more evident that for students to overcome
the struggles of learning the math language, and for society to improve its
attitude towards math, teachers must learn to adopt a more explorative nature
in their practice. Although for some students, memorization and habits
developed from practice ensure the greatest amount of success, it is not the
case for the majority. Most are unable to fully understand through repetition.
Exploring topics while manually working through the concepts, making mistakes,
learning from and teaching peers, relating topics to one another to create
relationships of all sorts are methods that seem to deliver the greatest
results. Presenting mathematics as a world of relationships, as the Japanese
classrooms do, creates a more dynamic learning environment.
Something that struck me as comparable was cooking. It is
mindless to purchase ingredients listed in a recipe, measure out the specified
amount, and follow instructions exactly as they are stated. However, sometimes
if we take the chance to add some extra spice, substitute one vegetable for
another, use a grill instead of an over, and so on, the creation may be just as
delicious as what the recipe intended. The process of trying out different
ingredients or experimenting with the cooking methods is similar to math. Using
new strategies, taking risks, adding or taking away something that was not
explicitly instructed can still lead to the “correct” answer. The most value is
found in exploring and learning these unexplained processes as they were
self-directed. The learning and understanding accomplished will last a great
deal longer than having been simply told.
No comments:
Post a Comment