Matt Inquires About Mathematics (EDUC 450B)

Link to our slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1bDJHtZL9BQwDMhn2-PH8_mP1kN1fD6aFyqrt2l7BjlQ/edit?usp=sharing Reflection: In this inquiry project, I learned a lot about the benefits of realistic mathematics education and developed many ideas how to teach mathematics with application to environmental education and climate change. I am inspired by the idea of teaching math outdoors in an outdoor amphitheater or garden space. I love being outside and hope it also can be valuable to students to help them retain information better; as shown in the literature. From my personal experience as a high school student many years ago, I enjoyed being part of the garden and working to build our school orchard garden from the ground up. I hope I get an opportunity to be the educator to help lead something like this in the future. This interest of mine leads me to see if I can develop a club or program where my students can take on environmental education initiatives in the school, such...

Today, our group worked on a google slide document putting together the structure of our presentation: Introduction, Why teach Climate Change, Realistic Mathematics Education (RME), Community reflection from our conversations with SA’s and other teachers, Literature Review, Interactive activity and bibliography. We seem to be making good progress towards completing the inquiry project. I am grateful for having time during EDUC 450 scheduled time to work on this project as I am swamped with other projects that have to be completed outside of class time. Goals for next week would be to meet with Susan to discuss our work so far and get suggestions on next steps/things to improve or edit.

Today, our group pieced together more literature papers, videos, and resources to total our 16 sources for the bibliography. We also found a few interesting ideas to use for the interactive activity portion of our project.  The next steps for our project was to distribute the papers so we each had some to read and summarize for the annotated bibliography but also have information we could include in our mini-lit review and findings for our project. We each agreed to find a person to speak to, for making connections of our project to real world teaching and learning. My contact person would probably be my SA or a connection I have who is currently a math/science teacher who is involved in school gardening and other environmental initiatives.

The biggest take-away I have from today’s discussion on ‘trusting science’ and using rigorous scientific methods to check facts and theories is to have an open mind and be willing to listen to/consider alternative theories presented. Science may not often be “set in stone” as there might be new advances in the future; science is continually evolving and being built upon. In mathematics, proofs are an excellent way to help build ‘trust’ in understanding why theorems work. However, it can be possible that there are flaws in the proofs and may ultimately change its understanding. A great example of keeping open minds for creativity and new ways of understanding is to welcome “fresh perspectives from new minds.” A person completely new to a field enter without any biases or previous knowledge and can contribute alternative views of the topic.

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...

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.

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...

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 ...

The Reconciling Ways of Knowing webinar was very powerful and moving. I enjoyed hearing the dialogue between Dr. Robin Kimmerer and Dr. Nancy Turner making connections and metaphors between Indigenous ways and ecology. For example, braided sweetgrass symbolizes peace and spirituality and its sweet scent attracts good spirits. I think using metaphors to make connections in the classroom will be beneficial to student learning and making connections. These connections may help the student become better at other aspects of life, ultimately aiding their personal growth and spiritual development. A story that Dr. Kimmerer shared which really connected with me was about two boys who were out gathering nuts in the forest. They were so excited outside playing around and found plenty of nuts. To carry them all back home, they took off their pants, tied closed the bottom pant legs, and filled the entire pants with nuts. I grew up near a neighbourhood park and ravine. I remember a younger versi...

 In the video lecture presented by Jo Boaler, a comparison was made between teaching math through a traditional approach and multi-dimensional approach. In a classroom teaching math through the traditional approach, students were less participative and under achieved compared to the multi-dimensional approach where they were more engaged in problem solving and critical thinking. I believe teaching through multi-dimensional methods such as stand-up math would be effective at getting students involved in learning, as well as develop other skills not necessarily used in formal assessment such as public speaking, thought processes and formulation of ideas, and group teamwork. Boaler presented an interesting longitudinal study conducted of 700 Californian high school students comparing traditional vs multi-dimensional approach to learning math and found that the students who learned math multi-dimensionally scored higher on tests.   Another interesting conversation was mentione...

Frank McCourt was an effective English teacher at a vocational school in New York, who was well loved and respected by his students. He never got the chance to complete high school as he had to left school to support his family.  A quote that really stood out to me was when McCourt said, "If you're teaching and you're not learning, you'll not teach [...] and the thing about teenagers is, if you can reach them, if they listen to you, the world will listen to you." McCourt’s quote says two things. Firstly, he says that teachers who aren’t learning are not teaching. Teachers are constantly learning. They learn about their students through daily interactions, their assignments, or even visual cues. It is through this information; they discover different ways to adapt or change their teaching style to better suit the needs of the students. For example, they may have developed different ways to explain an idea or concept. Educators also engage in life-long learning as t...