Reflection #4: Driving Questions 2011

During this podcast the topic of conversation between the host and his quests-who were two math teachers- was titled "Educational Malpractice & Math." They started off the conversation with a questionnaire that had been given to people concerning their feelings about math as an elementary school child and feelings about math as an adult. The numbers were even on those you disliked math as a child but ended up loving it as an adult and those who loved it as a child and hated it as an adult. After talking about the results of this questionnaire they began discussing why math can be such a tough subject for children. One of the math teachers (Cassandra) gave an example from her childhood about a teacher calling her stupid because she did not do a math problem the exact same way she had. Cassandra said she had a mental block about math for a majority of her school years until a math teacher in college gave her the confidence she needed. This example tied into the idea that the teacher's actions play a large role in determining the students future confidence and success in math. They also discussed how it is important that they have more time with students because it is difficult to teach a subject like math to 25 odd students. It is also hard to assess what these students really know. This discussion led into the idea of having students show their work. Is this really a necessary practice? Does it really show what students know? They never really came to an exact conclusion, but it is definitely a topic of debate in the education world.