DISCUSSION QUESTION We have all failed at something at least once. What have you failed at and how did it make you feel? Did it help you in the long run? Jo compares US math classrooms to those in Japan and China" while US teachers typically give students 30 repetitive problems to practice, teachers in Japan and China that she has seen gave no more than three problems to investigate and struggle through understanding (p. 53-54). In what ways, do either of these depictions resonate with your experiences when you were in school? How do you define struggle with respect to learning? How does your view of struggle influence your learning (in work and in life)? How can we support children (or others) to accept mistakes as a learning opportunity? Given that it's a whole cultural change, how can we help everyone around us learn to love mistakes, struggle and failure? After reading this chapter, in what ways do you feel more prepared to embrace struggle in your learning?
I am definitely finding the content of this book challenging... mainly because I used to think of myself as a good learner because i did work quickly!
ReplyDeleteThis term I have been working with a group of students preparing them for the annual "Cantamaths" competition... (I know in Auckland they do a version called Mathletics...) - it is a group maths challenge where they get up to 30 minutes to complete 20 problem solving tasks... it is all about speed! Often you get a hunch of the right answer and send it in - you don't go deep into questions because there just isn't time.
This chapter has caused me to question the validity of this...
This questioning has led me to the opinion that events like Cantamaths, timed tasks and other competititive, time pressure mathetmatics experiences are great for a minority of learners. (Learners like me). They push us to be agile in our thinking... and incentivise the learning of mathematics. However, alone - they do not provide a complete pedagogy. Speed skills without depth, flexibility and multi-dimensional thinking will not create a well rounded Mathematician (or learner).
Speedc can be helpful in many situations... but it can definitely cause increased anxiety... which will decrease performance of many!!!! That is - without training of the brain!
I've just started another book called "Performing under Pressure" - the key premise of this book (also built upon tenants of neuroscience) is that being under pressure can be honed to provide a super power (my words). Many of the examples in this book draw upon the experiences of professional athletes, who not only perform under pressure - but as a result of the pressure they are able to consistently perform even better!
Can the theory of these two books combine? Can we teach students to excel when time pressure impacts on performance???? I'm not sure of the answer... I'm only about 30 pages into the new book :)
Arohanui
BEN