Dan Meyer discusses the flaws in textbooks and how they fail to teach students patient problem-solving. As he puts it, "The way our textbooks, particularly math adopted textbooks, teach math reasoning and patient problem-solving--it's functionally equivalent to turning on 'Two and a Half Men' and calling it a day" (Meyer, 2010). The issue here is that students are conditioned into working with problems in which students are handed the information they need to solve, and then they solve those problems in a short amount of time. As a result, students don't develop the patience they need to solve authentic problems that take a substantial amount of time. This reminds me of the times when I've explained to my students that we're working on a particular topic (like polynomial division) partly because it helps to build their endurance for heftier math problems.
Technology can do a lot for helping students to develop their math endurance, to develop patient problem-solving. One issue with current teaching and textbooks is made evident when Meyer informs us, "Yet in my practice, in the U.S. here, we just give problems to students. We don't involve them in the formulation of the problem" (Meyer, 2010). I could use technology to find and present authentic problems that have real context. I can also use technology to give context and life to the problems that are in the textbook, just as Meyer demonstrates in his video. For example, Meyer takes photographs and produces videos that he presents in class to incite discussion among his students, thus involving them in the formulation of the problem.
If I were a student in Meyer's class, I'd probably find this approach highly conducive to my learning. See, I learn by doing. People can talk to me until they're blue in the face, but when it comes down to it, I don't know how to do something until I've actually done it myself. I think I've always learned this way; it's how I learned to cook, to rotate the tires on my car, to tie my shoes, and even to do math. What's important to note here is that Meyer didn't make technology the star in his class. He simply used it as a medium to get conversations started between students, which lead them to devising ways of solving the problem at hand. I can do what Meyer does--I can take photographs or make videos and I can present them in class as a means of putting math problems in real context for my students. In this way, I can evoke conversations among my students and teach them patient problem-solving. By doing so, I can also show other teachers what my students are doing and, perhaps, lead those teachers to involve their students in the formulation of the problem too.
Reference:
Meyer, D. (2010, April 12). Dan Meyer at TEDxNYED. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlvKWEvKSi8&index=13&list=PLbRLdW37G3oMquOaC-HeUIt6CWk-FzaGp
Technology can do a lot for helping students to develop their math endurance, to develop patient problem-solving. One issue with current teaching and textbooks is made evident when Meyer informs us, "Yet in my practice, in the U.S. here, we just give problems to students. We don't involve them in the formulation of the problem" (Meyer, 2010). I could use technology to find and present authentic problems that have real context. I can also use technology to give context and life to the problems that are in the textbook, just as Meyer demonstrates in his video. For example, Meyer takes photographs and produces videos that he presents in class to incite discussion among his students, thus involving them in the formulation of the problem.
If I were a student in Meyer's class, I'd probably find this approach highly conducive to my learning. See, I learn by doing. People can talk to me until they're blue in the face, but when it comes down to it, I don't know how to do something until I've actually done it myself. I think I've always learned this way; it's how I learned to cook, to rotate the tires on my car, to tie my shoes, and even to do math. What's important to note here is that Meyer didn't make technology the star in his class. He simply used it as a medium to get conversations started between students, which lead them to devising ways of solving the problem at hand. I can do what Meyer does--I can take photographs or make videos and I can present them in class as a means of putting math problems in real context for my students. In this way, I can evoke conversations among my students and teach them patient problem-solving. By doing so, I can also show other teachers what my students are doing and, perhaps, lead those teachers to involve their students in the formulation of the problem too.
Reference:
Meyer, D. (2010, April 12). Dan Meyer at TEDxNYED. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlvKWEvKSi8&index=13&list=PLbRLdW37G3oMquOaC-HeUIt6CWk-FzaGp