Math Education: An Inconvenient Truth


M.J. McDermott is speaking about the current state of math education, as a private citizen . KCPQ does not endorse this video.Math Education: An Inconvenient Truth







Channel: Howto
Uploaded: January 15, 2007 at 10:40 pm
Author: prestondave

Length: 00:15:25
Rating: 4.49
Views: 656221

Tags: Truth Inconvenient Education: Math An

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Video Comments:
InfiniteAnvil (November 22, 2008 at 4:38 pm)
It sounds like Everyday Math has a really good foundation in theory. I wish I'd had those extra zeroes; it explicates the theory while requiring minimum extra work.

We learned the TERC method in my university (CS-hosted) Algorithms class as the "Russian method," and most in the class wished we had been taught that, instead of the arbitrary-seeming shortcut we learned in elementary school.

Then again, in a class on algorithms, you're getting a lot of theory people and fewer practical people.
bunnykill100 (November 22, 2008 at 3:33 am)
I loved this! I remember learning all these random methods, and constantly asking "but WHY?! I just want to know how to multiply them together!". I actually did rather poorly in math in elementary school because I didn't understand WHY I needed all of it. For math, you basically just need to know (for middle school):
standard multiplication
multiplication up to 12 x 12
long division
fractions (+, -, /, *)
decimals (how to turn them into reg. numbers)
This shouldn't be that hard :S

Thanks again!
Bellatrix22 (November 22, 2008 at 3:10 am)
I learnt to use the standard algorithm and they taught us USING PLACE VALUES. It was more effiencent, easier to understand and we didn't waste "precious class time" drawing up boxes. I agree with wwleslie... there needs to be a balance with what they're teaching us. I've just finished year 11 Maths and I was disturbed at how many of my classmates haven't learnt long division in primary school. It make polynomial equations really hard for them. We "wasted" class time doing primary school work.
wwleslie (November 22, 2008 at 2:00 am)
In countries that perform well on international math tests (mostly in Asia and Europe), they do not teach junk computation methods (like clustering and lattice for multiplication); their texts are more rigorous than anything we have, though. The problem with traditional American math texts is that they didn't teach students how to think (too much drill); the problem with the new texts (like TERC and Everyday Math) is that they don't teach students how to compute. Why can't we have both?

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