Well, look at me-this week I decided to get all flash and start to study at the prestigious Stanford University in California. Sounds next level, but in reality is just an online course titled ‘How to learn Math‘ by Dr Jo Boaler. She has been a real math teacher in the US and the UK before lecturing in Math education.
The Mathmatician’s Lament is a thought provoking piece of work as you realise the ridiculousness of applying the same approach that we have with Maths to another curriculum area. But how can we create opportunities for students to ‘play’ Math? What does that look like?
Jo refers to Carol Dweck’s work on Mindset. There are two types-fixed and growth. So a fixed mindset would have a dumb kid saying they are dumb and can’t improve. This type of approach would certainly do away with the tradition of streamed classes based on ability as a growth mindset over comes any pigeon holing based on placement in either a ‘smart’ or ‘dumb’ class.
The growth mindset is a better concept to think of than just a simple work ethic. Students still need to work hard but that needs to be based on a belief that they can get better.
every mistake creates a synapse
Making mistakes is THE most useful things in maths
Concept of a Didactic contract in Maths learning: students want to be shown step by step, and teachers want to help; both lessening the ‘struggle’ and cognitive effort that will lead to deeper learning.
