Our discussion last class surrounding the teaching of maths resonated strongly with the tensions I see arising in my co-op placement. I am extremely fortunate in that my school placement is at St. Anne school, an inquiry based learning community. I find that in general my experiences within the school are parallel to what we are learning in our courses on campus: the value of constructivist teaching, the skills that develop in students who learn in a hands on, community centered environment, and the level of student engagement tied to the theory and practice of inquiry based learning. At times I would go so far as to say I feel a bit guilty when we are chatting in our courses about forward thinking teaching, and my classmates grumble that in their co-ops they are seeing nothing that we are being taught, only traditional rows of desks and worksheet after worksheet. St. Anne is doing incredible things, and it is evident when walking through their halls or speaking to the students.
However, math is an area of contention, in my view. While all other courses at the school are generally tied together through inquiry projects and cross curricular endeavors, math stands alone. The classes at St. Anne are all intentionally splits when they could be full single grade classes, which adds to the richness of the environment. With math, however, students meet with their grades and are taught the curriculum according to Math Makes Sense. While in the younger grades hands on learning is utilized a bit, after grade 2 it becomes very heavy on workbooks and hand in sheets.
I understand that math is a challenge to teach in a reformed way, yet I think if anywhere should be striving to do so it would be this school. Jared commented in class that it is a challenge for us, as TCs, to be taught on campus to teach in the know-how way, of reform and inquiry, yet when it comes time for practice it will be natural, and safe in our first few years, to teach the way we know. This includes the way we were taught as students, which is generally in the traditional, rote style, and the way we are seeing our co-op teachers teach. For me, the tension lies not in the comfort zone, but in seeing that such a reformed school is hesitant to take chances with one subject area, and the questions surrounding that hesitancy.
Very interesting dilemma. I think Math struggles with its identity and the difficulty of knowing lots of facts which make operations easier and would facilitate the fun stuff. And then there is the math phobia of teachers.
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