At 9:25 AM -0500 11/10/05, Christopher Green wrote:
Bob Grossman wrote:
Allen Esterson wrote:
This "traditional" approach to the teaching of mathematics in schools is
not only, I believe, more effective than the constructivist approach, it
is also far less time-consuming, enabling considerably more material to be
covered.
I had similar opinions until this summer when a colleague suggested I read some of the work of Magdalene Lampert. I was convinced that if I had her for an elementary math teacher I would have been far better off. I recommend her article "Knowing, Doing, and Teaching Multiplication," Cognition and Instruction, 1986, 3(4) 305-342, or book Teaching Problems and the Problems of Teaching, (2001) Yale University Press. I'm not totally sure she considers herself a "constructivist" teacher but I was impressed by how much deeper an understanding of math processes her students got in comparison to the algorithms I was forced to memorize as the "only true way" to do arithmetic.
There are always a few great teachers. Employing the methods they employ won't necessarily work with the vast masses of teachers hired in public schools across the nation (and the world).
The problem is that the 'methods' are not really a precise
description of what teachers do in the classroom (the devil is in the
details, and all that ....).
some really careful and accurate observation would show that
there are differences in what the effective (a better term than
'great') actually do.
What is needed are tried and true methods that will work well with the whole spectrum of teachers (and students). The constructivist method seems to be failing badly in the school district featured in the article, even with students whose parrents are mathematically sophisticated. That's got to be a bad sign for virtually everywhere else..
--
The best argument against Intelligent
Design is that fact that people believe in it.
* PAUL K.
BRANDON
[EMAIL PROTECTED] *
* Psychology Dept Minnesota State University *
* 23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, MN 56001 ph 507-389-6217 *
* http://www.mnsu.edu/dept/psych/welcome.html *
* Psychology Dept Minnesota State University *
* 23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, MN 56001 ph 507-389-6217 *
* http://www.mnsu.edu/dept/psych/welcome.html *
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