Math phobia is pervasive throughout the world, from different countries to different age groups. My inspiration for the topic begin at Skemp's reading on relational vs. instrumental understanding and mathematics, Lockhart's (riveting) Lament on the established form of mathematics vs. a truer mathematics in schools, and the excerpt of Battleground Schools by our very own Susan Gerofsky regarding the dichotomy of progressive vs. conservative mathematics education. The inspiration continued in the comments section of my 342 blog post responding to Battleground Schools, where I responded to Malihe's questions about addressing the oscillations between the two sides. Although I did respond, a lot of my response felt like educated conjecture, and it made me wonder if there truly was a link between the dichotomy of progressive and conservative approaches. Another source of inspiration was the class discussion we had on false dichotomies; we can note that "progressive vs. conservative approaches" is itself a dichotomy, but if we add an extra element of math phobia, does it create a new dimension? My 450 blog post on this matter challenges the ideas of dichotomies, spectrums, and alignment frameworks as a whole, and it makes me wonder about the intersectionalities between the spectrum of math phobia (which may not be a spectrum; it could be based on multiple dimensions of criteria) and the progressive-conservative approaches to mathematics education. Altogether, my inquiry topic was born. Is the progressive-conservative dichotomy a true one? We can assert that math phobia is a consequence of conservative mathematics from Battleground Schools, so can we consult the opposite end in order to reduce it? I have some guesses, and one suspicion that we won't be able to fully address it, and perhaps even a new form of math phobia would form where students fear a new form of mathematics education approach. (e.g. A student fearing projects, experiential learning, and other attributes of progressive mathematics.)
Finally on a short note, I feel that addressing math phobia is simply important. Mathematics is important as a practical and artistic, expressive form, and all humans should have the mental access point required to approach and engage with it. I've known many math phobic people and have found that the existence of them has been considered "natural" and "inherent" for the longest time, including my sister who vehemently loathes the idea of mathematics and runs away from it. (One time, she asked me to help with her homework on exponent laws on Khan Academy when she was in grade 11. I was in grade 8.) I hope that with this inquiry, we can find new ways to not only address math phobia, but to also individualize our diagnoses in order to understand it better. After all, we don't simply address "cancer", we address each type differently. (Not to say that math phobia is a cancer, but one could see it that way, haha.)
A very interesting topic, Carson! I think you'll probably need to focus your topic further, to make it workable for the time we will have, but I am looking forward very much to seeing where you take this!
ReplyDeleteI've had some thoughts on this, and am thinking of narrowing down from conservative vs. progressive mathematics education approaches to just instrumental vs. relational mathematics emphases as depicted by Skemp. With this narrowing, the 3 concepts would be:
DeleteA: The same as the original (quantifying, categorizing, criteria for math phobia)
B: Ties between instrumental mathematics teaching and math phobia, and whether it contributes to math phobia
C: Ties between relational mathematics teaching and math phobia, and seeing if it is effective in reducing math phobia or not
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I also came up with another possible inquiry topic:
Topic: Students being in the teacher's shoes as a way to learn and integrate
Concept A: What powers and responsibilities are acceptable to give to a student
Concept B: Which classroom scenarios and activities would benefit from letting students teach; effectiveness in learning
Concept C: How can we teach students to embrace the role of a teacher
Short blurb: This was inspired by my recent school visit to Prince of Wales Secondary, where I visited a Social Studies classroom. It was presentation day, and the students were presenting various topics of their choosing from the 1920's. Watching one of these presentations, it reminded me of the learning potential that they can have, but also when unguided it can be missed potential (such as raw script reading, which happened). However, this group went off-script, and connected and synthesized new ideas after the slides were done, and things started sounding really interesting! Although I'm biased as an open-minded, attentive teacher candidate, I have also felt that my reflections for presentation assignments have been easy because the process is just so memorable, which makes me feel like I've learned something meaningful.
I was reminded of the saying where "teaching is one of the best ways to learn", and my own personal experiences agree with this, whether it's my university experience of teaching people as a means to study or taking what I know and being able to articulate it to people, who in turn can teach others and create a big rippling reaction of knowledge and skill exchange. I also feel that the soft skill developments from teaching can go a long way, even if they are not the focus of the learning. Although it sounds a bit silly, the idea also came from flipping around the advice of "put yourself in the student's shoes", perhaps as a means to make students more empathetic of our plight as teachers. *chuckle* I haven't completely settled on this idea yet, but it looks promising to me the more I write about it.