The following
is a video of Conrad Wolfram, a fantastic mathematician and speaker who argues
that computers are the dividing factor between the classrooms and the real
world. By this, he means that the pedagogy and practices currently used in
classrooms today, are unrelated to the real life examples of where these
concepts can be applied. Mathematics is
process that moves people towards logical reasoning, something we need in our
day to day activities. As teachers, we need to teach students to
1.
ask the right questions
2.
set up their data
3.
calculate
4.
take their answer and apply it to the real
world.
Currently,
Wolfram believes that we spend up to 80% of math classes focused on step 3,
calculating when we should be teaching students all steps evenly. His biggest
issue with the current math system is that because the emphasis is so great on
getting students to calculate answers, students are not learning 'big picture'
math in the context of real world examples and implications. So much time is
spent on computations in a classroom whereas in the real world solutions are
often solved by computers. I believe that to change the current math system would
be a massive undergoing, where the system bottom-up would have to re-educate teachers
to be more tech savvy far passing their
current knowledge of technology and programming. Top-down, government
ministries are just as responsible for restructuring curriculum to move away
from computational strategies and move toward comprehension strategies. However,
this change could be revolutionary in terms of the leadership and innovation
our next generation of citizens could offer.
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