Matt Inquires About Mathematics (EDUC 450B)

Being an Asian male who studied mathematics in university, I most certainly fit into the stereotype of the nerdy Asian who is good at math. My post-secondary math grades were not entirely stellar as I averaged 66-68% among math courses between 2 nd and 3 rd year. By the end of 5 th year, this average was around 72%. What got me to pursue math was purely out of interest in the subject and curiosity. I think as secondary teachers in math and physics, we should push all students to develop curiosity to learn more about these subjects and particularly encourage women and other underrepresented groups into these subject areas because this gives them equal opportunity to enter STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) fields. STEM jobs are essentially building the future as technology continues to advance and is an ever-growing industry. There is still an unequal gender divide in these subject areas in post-secondary and entry into these work field are very competitive. Women a...

 For this topic, I will work with Ivan and Tyler thinking about making connections between climate change and mathematics.  I wanted to conduct my inquiry project surrounding the topic of environmental education in mathematics because I am very interested in sustainability and environmental economics. This interest began in high school when I took on lead in the school composting program and was involved in building our school orchard from the group up. Problem-solving and critical thinking skills from mathematics were essential to my success on these projects, however, I wished there were lessons in math class that explicitly touched on these topics. During my undergrad I took courses in urban studies, environmental psychology, forestry economics and economics of non-renewable resources, which I think have some interesting ideas to incorporate in a math classroom.

  “It is important that teachers understand the positive as well as the negative consequences of praising students” (Van Manen, 2008, p. 2). Teachers often give praise to students for providing the correct answer to a problem, correct behaviour, or even contributing interesting insight to discussions or conversations in the classroom. This happens almost instinctively and unknowingly by educators, likely due to experience working with students or from theories learnt in teacher education programs. When students receive compliments, it is felt more strongly when conferred in public because others are witness. It produces a positive sense of self, like how one receives positive public recognition. Van Manen warns educators that there are also potentially negative connotations where students may feel embarrassment when being “singled-out” which creates a sense of inequality or assigned a special value by the teacher. Van Manen says that a tactful teacher has the sensitive ability to...

From our students’ schooling, I hope they become critical thinkers and members of society that question the norms set out by institutions and governments. I hope they develop skills and learn to gather valid and researched evidence to challenge controversial ideas to change society to be inclusive and fair for all members. Schools should prepare students to make a difference in society rather than “blindly” obeying authority and following the daily mundane routine. Our assessments and grading of students should be a two-way conversation, where students can question their marks and challenge what was given to them by the teacher. Students and teachers should be able to come to an agreement as to where their assessment stands.

From a “teacher bird” perspective, grades can be seen as an indicator of a student’s ability to demonstrate they meet learning objectives. Assigning percentages are usually a measure of “how well” a student performs in achieving learning objectives. Traditionally in mathematics, this percentage refers to “how correct” their solutions/problem solving ability is. Teachers use these percentages as a measurement to determine how students will progress throughout their learning career. There is a double-edged sword to giving grades; grades motivate students to complete assignments and study for tests, but students are not learning effectively when performing these tasks. From a “student bird” perspective, grades are a “reward or punishment they receive for an assignment or test” (Sarte & Hughes, 2010). Students use grades as a motivator to perform well, but motivation to learn decreases. This is because students have plenty of stressors to perform well: comparing grades with peers can c...

I am very interested in the idea of embodying mathematics with physical movement to make learning more memorable and interesting.  Ivy, May and Karishma’s group mentions how traditional crafts can have elementary patterns and be useful in learning geometric representations. These crafts can show how geometric patterns get shifted, translated, or reflected them moved around. Additionally, music and math are excellent combinations at understanding rhythms, timing and scales. Pairing theoretical learning with bodily movements can make theory more realistic as it gives students the ability to visualize and interact with theory. I like how Conner, Julia, Kelsea, and Adam’s group calls it the ‘a-ha moments’ for when students form connections between several ideas. Jacob’s group also mentions how there might be “soft” skills that come from bodily movements while learning such as teamwork, discovery, experimentation. This is analogous to the implicit curriculum idea from a reading called T...

Bodily experiences can be helpful at learning aspects of mathematics and physics because we begin to make a physical connection through movement, sensory experiences, or gestures to understand mathematical theory. At an early age, we use our fingers to count numbers and perform simple arithmetic operations like add and subtract. In this reading, it was discussed that a circle can go to infinity if it has infinite radius; a circle with infinite radius has zero curvature and is a straight line. We can use bodily experiences to visualize this: tie both ends of a string so that it is a closed loop which gives us a shape that appears geometrically a circle. Then using our two hands, we can try to make the radius (or diameter which is two times the radius) as large as possible by pulling the sides of the “circle.” What we notice, is that the geometric shape now begins to “flatten.” The more we continue pulling the circle, the straighter (and flatter) it appears in the Euclidean plane. Hender...

Today’s class sparked an engaging discussion on religion and spirituality’s involvement in the classroom. We argued that religion should be left out of public schools and independent schools are free to worship whatever they choose to. If public schools (who is mainly funded by the government) emphasized and pushed towards one religion specifically, other religions may feel left out and may cause tension between cultures. Despite this, it is important to acknowledge the importance of multiculturalism and fostering a safe and inclusive school environment for students and staff. We also discussed how math should not be kept within its own disciplinary boundary as math is the most applicable subject to many fields such as physics, finance, economics, and art. As educators, it is our responsibility to teach math as an interval to everything, while taking advantage of the technologies available to us. Reducing the emphasize on computation and encouraging critical thinking and analysis will ...