In Czech Republic, they recently started experimenting with Hejný method of teaching mathematics, which is a way to make mathematics fun; furthermore, the method is designed to work in a classroom environment.
Many of the broader ideas in this link seem to be sensible, but the overall method still needs to be tested empirically, and the extreme emphasis on “we’ll just let kids discover the math on their own!” does not bode well, since this has been tried and failed dramatically, e.g. in the U.S.!
Sorry but math teachers need to actually know their math; they can’t get away with just being “coaches” and “facilitators”!
math teachers need to actually know their math; they can’t get away with just being “coaches” and “facilitators”!
Absolutely. If your math is not solid, and the child comes up with an unexpected idea, you can’t provide a valuable “coaching” in return.
Unfortunately, school is what it is, and teachers are what they are, including math teachers. I guess in short term you have to accept that math teachers are often incompetent in math as a fact about the world, and try to minimize the damage. :( And perhaps the long-term plan is that the next generation brought up using this method will have more math-competent math teachers.
the overall method still needs to be tested empirically
In progress, as far as I know. At least the last time I heard about it, they were testing the method on a randomly selected group of Czech elementary schools.
Many of the broader ideas in this link seem to be sensible, but the overall method still needs to be tested empirically, and the extreme emphasis on “we’ll just let kids discover the math on their own!” does not bode well, since this has been tried and failed dramatically, e.g. in the U.S.!
Sorry but math teachers need to actually know their math; they can’t get away with just being “coaches” and “facilitators”!
Absolutely. If your math is not solid, and the child comes up with an unexpected idea, you can’t provide a valuable “coaching” in return.
Unfortunately, school is what it is, and teachers are what they are, including math teachers. I guess in short term you have to accept that math teachers are often incompetent in math as a fact about the world, and try to minimize the damage. :( And perhaps the long-term plan is that the next generation brought up using this method will have more math-competent math teachers.
In progress, as far as I know. At least the last time I heard about it, they were testing the method on a randomly selected group of Czech elementary schools.