Transcript Boaler - Transition Mathematics Project

Increasing Public
Understanding of Effective
Math Teaching.
Jo Boaler,
Marie Curie Professor
The University of Sussex.
Today
Part 1: Setting the Scene
 Part 2: Learning About Public Views of
Mathematics Teaching
 Questions / Discussion

Math…

Is the subject with the biggest gap between
what we know works from research and
what happens in most classrooms
National Math Panel Report
Response From the Math
Education Community,
Educational Researcher,
next month
New ways of working

Making research findings more accessible
&

More broadly available to general public
My journey ..

Writing a Book for the public
My journey
Writing a Book for the public
 Contacting Politicians


“this makes perfect sense”
My journey
Writing a Book for the public
 Contacting Politicians



“this makes perfect sense”
Contacting the Press
My journey
Writing a Book for the public
 Contacting Politicians


“this makes perfect sense”
Contacting the Press
 Writing Op-Ed articles

Recent Ed Week Article

Where Has All The Knowledge Gone? The
Movement to Keep Americans at the
Bottom of the Class in Math.

Oct 8th, 2008
My journey
Writing a Book for the public
 Contacting Politicians


“this makes perfect sense”
Contacting the Press
 Writing Op-Ed articles

Different Knowledge Groups

Mathematics Education Professionals (us)
Mathematics Education
Professionals (us)

Problem solve – using & applying methods

Talk about math, discussing methods

Use own ideas, not only repeat methods

Make connections between methods
What is the
problem?
Mathematics in
the World
Mathematics used by
Mathematicians
At Railside school

Many more students were successful
because there were many more ways to be
successful.
Mathematics as a subject:

IN or

OUT
AOL News Poll

Most Hated Subject – twice as many voted
for math as any other subject

Most Liked Subject.

Reflects the “in” or “out” nature of school
math
Different Knowledge Groups

Mathematics Education Professionals

Groups who campaign to preserve the
exclusive, in-out, narrow version of math
Mathematics Education Groups
A book
Mainstream Publisher
(Viking & Penguin)
How it came about.
Other academics…
No idea
 Misled
 Very important

20+ radio interviews
Mainly 10-15 minutes
 Conversations with djs sharing their
thoughts, interests, concerns
 30 mins NPR “The Morning Show” & 1
hour “The Exchange” New Hampshire
Public Radio (members of public called in)

The radio stations
WAFE
Blowing apart the idea that math success is
a sign of general intelligence
 Not engaging in narrow math is perfectly
reasonable

How did they react?
Surprise and Relief
 More than half shared Tales of Trauma
Eg Kitty Dunn, “weekend perspective”

Vast majority disliked math, 1 or 2 liked it –
all saw the need for change.
What they cared about:
Need for help with life (finances etc)
 Need for engagement “there is nothing
worse than having to memorize a bunch of
theorems”
 Music metaphor (“the Morning Show”
NPR)

Keith Devlin

Mathematical notation no more is
mathematics than musical notation is
music. A page of sheet music represents a
piece of music, but the notation and the
music are not the same; the music itself
happens when the notes on the page are
sung or performed on a musical
instrument. It is in its performance that
the music comes alive” (The Math Gene,
2000, p9)
Continuing the music
metaphor…

Mathematics is a performance, a living act, a way of
interpreting the world. Imagine music lessons in
which students worked through hundreds of hours of
sheet music, adjusting the notes on the page,
receiving checks and crosses from the teachers, but
never playing the music. Students would not
continue with the subject because they would never
experience what music is. Yet this is the situation that
continues, seemingly unabated in mathematics
classes. (What’s Math Got To Do With It’ p29)
What they cared about:

Need for help with life
Need for engagement “there is nothing worse
than having to memorize a bunch of
theorems” (various) – music metaphor
Need for Problem solving (Morning Show)

Need for Reasoning (& groupwork) (KCMN)


2 issues

The Purity
Jim Parisi
Qu: who likes
math for its
purity?
A: Yes
B: No
2 issues

The Purity

The Tests
In Conclusion ..
Anti-reformers have worked actively,
effectively, and unethically to oppose
changes to math teaching, but how wide is
their influence?
 They have created a fiction around their
own importance
 I got the overwhelming sense that no-one
had made these points to these people, but
when they heard them they completely
understood the issues

As powerful as traditional groups have
been, they do not well represent the public
 We need to question how they have
managed to have such influence
 We need to be outraged by what they have
done and continue to do
 It is our responsibility, as those who know
about children’s learning, to educate the
public and politicians

Mathematics Education Groups