life is a rum go guv’nor, and that’s the truth
Math problem solving procedures are important tools in a problem solver’s toolbox. Fluency at using those procedures frees up cognitive resources for problem solving. This is the component fluency hypothesis described by van Merriënboer in his book Training Complex Cognitive Skills and in an ETR&D article. These algorithmic skills are not everything though. Common taxonomies [...]
Posted on April 22nd, 2008 by joel
Filed under: math education | No Comments »
Recently the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center (PSLC) opened public access to a wiki version of their theoretical framework which had previously only been available in PDF format. Kurt VanLehn, one of the PSLC directors, and a pioneer in the field of intelligent tutoring systems, serves as editor. The framework attempts to provide a cohesive [...]
Posted on April 22nd, 2008 by joel
Filed under: math education | No Comments »
Why is it that students so often claim “I am no good at math”? Here is one theory:
In primary grades the major emphasis is on recall of basic math facts (e.g. 3 + 5).
Many kids aren’t wired for simple recall (they aren’t good at memorizing). I’m not.
Commonly used instructional approaches don’t give the immediate feedback [...]
Posted on April 22nd, 2008 by joel
Filed under: math education | 1 Comment »
Saturday I attended and presented at the Utah Association of Math Teacher Educators (UAMTE) meeting in SLC and benefited greatly.Catherine Lewis of MILLS College presented an excellent keynote on Lesson Study. Catherine illustrated the process using video vignettes and made a strong case for its benefit. Resources she suggested for further learning about lesson study: [...]
Posted on March 1st, 2004 by joel
Filed under: conferences, math education | No Comments »
I just read an article by SRI researchers that reports on a user study of the Math Tools DL. As one of the participants in the study I was interested to see what they had to say. The basic structure of the report was to: (a) summarize the results, (b) propose representative personas, and (c) [...]
Posted on March 1st, 2004 by joel
Filed under: authoring tools, interactive online math, math education, web development | No Comments »
Yesterday in a discussion with an NSDL evaluator who is also an ElEd Prof., he told me that research has shown that teachers would rather be given the parts from which to build lessons, than pre-completed lessons. I have asked him for more details about the claim and what data it is based on, but [...]
Posted on September 26th, 2003 by joel
Filed under: authoring tools, interactive online math, math education | No Comments »
The fear that technology will replace teachers has a long and storied history. It merits a close look.As has been repeatedly claimed, the use of the technology in the classroom is changing the role of teachers (or at least has the potential to change the role of teacher). My experience is that this scares teachers. [...]
Posted on September 26th, 2003 by joel
Filed under: instructional design, interactive online math, math education | No Comments »
I’m not a big fan of rote learning, but I realize that kids need to learn to efficiently recall basic math facts. My boy is in 3rd grade and is learning his multiplication facts and is still a bit weak on his addition facts. The strategy they use in my boy’s classroom is repetition. He [...]
Posted on September 11th, 2003 by joel
Filed under: instructional design, interactive online math, math education | No Comments »
I just ran across an interesting research report titled Inside US Math and Science Classrooms. The abstract is:A total of 364 mathematics and science lessons were observed using a structured observation protocol. Each lesson was rated on four components: the lesson design, implementation, math/science content addressed, and classroom culture. Observers rated several indicators within each [...]
Posted on September 11th, 2003 by joel
Filed under: math education, research | No Comments »
I’ve been visiting recently with colleagues here at Utah State University discussing the initiation of a new project to help improve math education here in the state. If you were given an infinite supply of money, time, and personnel, what would you do?
If you were given a small amount of resources, what would you do?
Who [...]
Posted on September 10th, 2003 by joel
Filed under: interactive online math, math education | No Comments »