mathematics | it's about learning

What do you know about how math is taught versus how math is best learned? Do you have twenty minutes to spark and forward your own deeper understanding about maths learning? How does your child’s school approach math teaching and learning? How are you serving as a school leader to enhance math learning in your school – do your school practices match the research?

So, if a maths question doesn’t have the space inside it to think and learn and discuss, then its potential as a learning task is very limited.

When we open tasks and ask students to think about how they see them and to talk with each other, the opportunities for learning are increased.

Maths classrooms should encourage more depth and less speed.

– Jo Boaler, YouCubed

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In the summer of 2013, I enrolled in and completed Jo Boaler’s MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), “How People Learn Math.” In my 43 years, it has been one of the strongest learning experiences I have had.

Mathematics is everywhere, and it’s truly beautiful. Yet, “school” tends to approach mathematics instruction from an imbalanced procedural, algorithmic and computational angle.

Thankfully a number of educators are trying to revolutionize the ways that mathematics is typically taught in school. Two of these incredible revolutionaries are at Stanford University – Dr. Jo Boaler (@JoBoaler) and Dr. Keith Devlin (@profkeithdevlin).

For the past two months, I have learned mightily from participating in a MOOC with Dr. Boaler – EDU115N “How to Learn Math.” And just this morning, I listened to a podcast of Krista Tippett interviewing Dr. Devlin. When I returned from my morning walk with Lucy, I had an email from Dr. Boaler announcing her new non-profit for revolutionizing mathematics teaching and learning – YouCubed.

Of course, I wanted to share these strands and do my part for mathematical evangelism.

Mathematical equations are like sonnets says Keith Devlin. What most of us learn in school, he says, doesn’t begin to convey what mathematics is. And technology may free more of us to discover the wonder of mathematical thinking — as a reflection of the inner world of our minds. – See more at: On Being