In this TED Talk, Dan Meyer, a high school math teacher, discusses some of the problems of math education today. Let’s face it, the way we teach math in the US ensures that students won’t retain it. According to Meyer, these are the five issues with math education today: lack of initiative (students don’t self start), lack of perseverance, lack of retention, aversion to word problems, and eagerness for formula. Teaching this way does no good for anybody. It does not teach math for understanding or retention. Most textbooks assign problems in which all the information is given and meant to be plugged into a formula for computation. In no way does this type of education prepare students for the real world because the out there problems are not so simple. Any problem worthy of solving is complex. Worthwhile problems require creativity, innovation, conversations, and critical thinking. Not swapping numbers into an equation.
If you didn’t know this, Dan Meyer is kind of a big deal in the math education world. He is look up to by many, myself included. What Meyer does is take the essential elements (what really matters) of textbook problems and rebuild them in a way that support mathematical reasoning and patient problem solving. He asks relevant questions that promote mathematical conversations. He tries to level the playing field by asking questions that encourages the use of intuition as opposed to formulas. Thus, no student has the advantage over others. One thing I take away from this video is the idea of using multimedia in the math classroom. This is not only more engaging for students but it allows the teacher to create and use math problems relevant to the real world. I intend to incorporate multimedia in my Clinical Practice classroom. It is an amazing time to teach math right now because we have the tools to create high-quality curriculum, and we have the tools to distribute it. Overall, math is important because it helps us make sense of the world. We need to teach students how to apply math to real world situations. I am so glad I watched this TED Talk and I encourage my fellow math educators to watch it too.
Source:
"Dan Meyer |Dan Meyer| TEDxNYED." YouTube.Web. 2 Dec. 2015.
If you didn’t know this, Dan Meyer is kind of a big deal in the math education world. He is look up to by many, myself included. What Meyer does is take the essential elements (what really matters) of textbook problems and rebuild them in a way that support mathematical reasoning and patient problem solving. He asks relevant questions that promote mathematical conversations. He tries to level the playing field by asking questions that encourages the use of intuition as opposed to formulas. Thus, no student has the advantage over others. One thing I take away from this video is the idea of using multimedia in the math classroom. This is not only more engaging for students but it allows the teacher to create and use math problems relevant to the real world. I intend to incorporate multimedia in my Clinical Practice classroom. It is an amazing time to teach math right now because we have the tools to create high-quality curriculum, and we have the tools to distribute it. Overall, math is important because it helps us make sense of the world. We need to teach students how to apply math to real world situations. I am so glad I watched this TED Talk and I encourage my fellow math educators to watch it too.
Source:
"Dan Meyer |Dan Meyer| TEDxNYED." YouTube.Web. 2 Dec. 2015.