Should Albertans panic about math?

This was written by Dave Martin who is high school math teacher in Red Deer. He blogs here and tweets here. This post was originally found here.

by Dave Martin

Edmonton Journal's David Staples has been writing about

Grade inflation and flex time harm education, high school teacher warns

and

Alberta schools are no longer the best

and most recently,

Students ‘cheated’ by way math is taught, say educators and parents

If you read all these articles, you will notice one important commonality...Staples refuses to write about the "other side" of the story. Thus I offer a view from another David.

I invite you to read his articles to see one side, and then read below to see the other.

First, Staples wrote:

It’s common for students to get much higher marks in their classroom than they get on their diploma exams...the number of EPSB students who have been graded as “excellent” or “acceptable” on province wide diploma exams has dropped by 1.9 per cent. In the classroom, however, the number who have been graded “excellent” or “acceptable” has gone up by seven per cent.

He creates an idea that this should not be the norm and the teacher mark should be the same on the diploma. This is great in theory, but before you nod your head I ask you to remember some minor details:

• The teacher spends almost 5 months with your child, while the diploma spends 3 hours. 
• The teacher has met, talked, and learned about the interests of your child, while the diploma was made in an office by people who have, most likely, never met your child. 
• Your child is allowed to use real word devices, such as Dictionaries, Apps, Blogs, Web Articles, etc, in the classroom, while the diploma creates a false sense that knowledge is only valuable if you can memorize it, not apply it.
• Lastly, because Staples writes about the Math diploma, the teacher gives various types of questions, in various formats, in various ways to your child, while the diploma only asks Multiple Choice and Numerical Response.

Now I ask, which mark should have more merit? I pose a different problem... Why is the diploma mark lower than the mark given by the teacher? Isn't it time we change our standardized assessment strategies?

Next, Staples writes:

Alberta students used to be ranked at the top of the world academically, but they are sliding...In 2000, Alberta ranked top worldwide in reading, third overall in science and math. Our teachers and curriculum were top notch and our accountability, through provincial exams, was state-of-the-art....Since then, however, Alberta has steadily dropped. This week when the 2012 PISA results came out, we ranked 11th in math, fifth in reading and fourth in science... 

First, I don't believe we can put our faith in a two-hour exam, as my arguments from above still stand, however lets go beyond that.

Staples will have you believe that this drop is due to the fact that the math curriculum has changed, and even that we need better teachers in the classrooms to be educating your child. When I read this, I remember back to my Science class when we learned about constant, dependent, and independent variables.

Before we go witch hunting on the teachers, lets remember that these teachers are the same ones who were instructing in 2000. Unless I am unaware, the graduation requirements to become a teacher in 2000 are the same as they are now. Thus, teachers would be the constant variable in this. Now that we can't blame teachers, we can ask what changed?

Sure the math curriculum changed, but was there more? Class sizes over the last year have also increased, funding of AISI projects have been reduced to 0. I don't understand how if more than one thing has changed (independent variables), how can we point our finger to one of them and ignore the rest?

My last debate comes from the fact that Staples will have you believe that because we don't teach memorization of math facts students won't understand math.

The reality is that being told number facts, and forced to regurgitate these facts, will not create an environment which is conducive to deeper learning. The best way a student can understand, not just recite, mathematics is through discovering the facts on their own. For some, this discovery process can take seconds, while for others it may take an entire class. The role the teacher plays in this is by acting as a tour guide. By keeping the students on the “path” towards the discovery, it will ensure that all students create their own individual, and innovative, techniques in learning mathematics.

I often ask myself, which skills do I want for my own children? Do I want them to be taught the skills to memorize, and ultimately be able to complete algorithmic tasks, or the ability to create and design which will lead them down a road towards a career with heuristic tasks?

The reality is that the age old saying that “Practice makes perfect”, does not apply to deep learning in mathematics. Traditionally, students have been given worksheets which have multiplication facts on them and are given a strict time limit to complete these (named Mad Minutes), but in actuality the mark given on these “Mad” sheets really does not indicate to anyone as to knowledge of the student writing them.

The weak students truly suffer the most from this model of proficiency-driven, because they find these tasks dull, repetitive, and entirely unusable in the world outside the walls of the classroom. I would agree that sometimes, knowing facts as the days of the week are important, but these facts should be a by-product of use and application not out of necessity.

Another fact is, by spending time forcing these facts to be memorized is truly interfering with a child’s innovative and creative ability. Most of these worksheets require low level thinking and usually can lock the thought process of a student into understanding simple algorithms. Eleanor Duckworth summed it up the best,

“Knowing the right answer requires no decisions, carries no risk, and makes no demands. It is automatic. It is thoughtless.” 

Is this the environment in which math students should be learning?

The new math curriculum believes, among many things, that:

• Students learn by attaching meaning to what they do, and they need to construct their own meaning of mathematics.

• Students need to explore problem-solving situations in order to develop personal strategies and become mathematically literate. They must realize that it is acceptable to solve problems in a variety of ways and that a variety of solutions may be acceptable.

• Curiosity about mathematics is fostered when children are engaged in, and talking about, such activities as comparing quantities, searching for patterns, sorting objects, ordering objects, creating designs and building with blocks

I end with a link to a petition asking the Edmonton Journal to stop writing one sided, bias, articles, and until they do so you agree to stop reading their paper.

STOP WRITING BIAS EDUCATIONAL REPORTS