My Thoughts...
After reading through the forward, intro and chapter 2 of Jo Boalers’ Experiencing School Mathematics, I am intrigued to continue to read to see what the research determines (if anything) about the different types of schooling and teaching styles. As a primary teacher, I cannot fathom standing at the board and teaching the exact same way day in and day out without much movement or contribution from my students. It would be unheard of in primary/elementary mathematics classroom. Why then, is it “acceptable” for this standard of teaching to be allowed in junior high and high school classrooms? Is it because teachers are in a time crunch, so much content to teach, and so little time? Is it because students are older and learning becomes their responsibility? Or are we simply “teaching to a test” knowing that students have to take part in standardize testing? How did this huge gap in math teaching styles happen where we try to create confident, creative math students who know it’s ok to be ‘stuck’ on a math problem to teenagers who are not allowed to think for themselves but who are capable of regurgitating a formula to a teacher’s satisfaction?
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