elementary school math-fact challenges
Feb. 7th, 2013 08:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chhotiiHere's what I don't get: I've been told that the MCAS is un-timed. (Is this true?)
If this is so, why is there so much emphasis on doing the math-fact sheets as fast as possible? Timing them and so forth? For some kids, rising to the challenge will work. But there are some kids (such as Sophia, and at least one other kid you know...) for whom the timer causes so much activation of the sympathetic nervous system that it impairs both performance and learning. In a big way.
Mathematicians are not judged on speed. So why is math treated like a track event in 2nd grade?
If this is so, why is there so much emphasis on doing the math-fact sheets as fast as possible? Timing them and so forth? For some kids, rising to the challenge will work. But there are some kids (such as Sophia, and at least one other kid you know...) for whom the timer causes so much activation of the sympathetic nervous system that it impairs both performance and learning. In a big way.
Mathematicians are not judged on speed. So why is math treated like a track event in 2nd grade?
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no subject
Date: 2013-02-07 05:02 pm (UTC)Well, they're judged on output of new stuff. But it's hard to be productive in one area of math without "having a good working knowledge of" the areas on which it is based. And "working knowledge" usually means "able to perform the standard activities by habit".
The example that drove this home for me was watching my brother struggle with calculus. The problem was that he hadn't learned algebra to the point where he could execute it reflexively. During any particular calculus derivation, there would be one or more places where his work was not identically the same as the book's version. If he'd really learned algebra, he would have seen at a glace that the two were equal, but he couldn't think through the algebra at the same time he was thinking through the calculus.
Unfortunately, time pressures are ubiquitous in the real world, and it seems to me that the best course is to help the kid learn how to control her emotional state when under time pressure. (How else will she be able to drive, where every task is real-time?)
no subject
Date: 2013-02-07 05:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-07 06:35 pm (UTC)Of course, if we knew how to do that, then that would be the best course. If you hear of any techniques for teaching control of emotional state, let me know, I'm all ears.
But I think in the case of my kid, at her age, that skill just involves some neurological maturation that she's delayed in. Meanwhile, though, while we wait for that to happen, she's learning all the wrong things such as "math is hateful" and "I suck at math".
no subject
Date: 2013-02-07 08:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-01 10:51 pm (UTC)The only technique I know of (and there may well be others) is "systematic desensitization", exposing the subject to increasingly intense experiences of the type they have a phobia regarding, interleaved with time to emotionally recover, introspect, and learn/devise coping strategies. (ah, there is a Wikipedia page on it) I gather it helps a lot if the subject can be guided by someone who has had the same phobia but has overcome it. I've seen press reports of progressive desensitization being used for claustrophobia, and I've used it on myself to reduce my social phobias. (See Zimbardo's Shyness (http://www.amazon.com/Shyness-What-It-Is-About/dp/0201550180) for a series of exercises that are essentially that.)
Of course, no technique will work unless the subject believes it is necessary to change (for one reason or another). But to succeed in the Real World, one must adjust one's emotional processes to match the demands of the world, since the world won't do so. Ideally you can help your daughter realize this before she's 22 and hunting for her first job.
that skill just involves some neurological maturation that she's delayed in.
The question that comes to me is why don't you delay her education until she has the neurological maturity expected/demanded of children in that grade?
she's learning all the wrong things such as "math is hateful" and "I suck at math".
I guess it comes from my personal background, but I don't see these as terribly important. Certainly I was poor at arithmetic and still am (particularly multiplying 6, 7, and 8) and I still don't like it. Other parts of math I like. But I see those likes/dislikes as being intrinsic to my personality, not learned aversions. As for how one conceptualizes one's skills, presumably that is updated based on experience.
Deep under this is the idea that school is not about what one enjoys but what one must do. And an incredibly valuable skill is the ability to diligently do things that are distasteful. Certainly in my life, lack of self-discipline has been much more of a barrier to success than lack of intelligence or other inherent skills. So school is a good place to learn self-discipline. Conversely, if a child learns that raising a fuss when confronted with an unpleasant task gets one out of doing the task, the opposite lesson is learned.
no subject
Date: 2013-03-02 11:52 am (UTC)That's a fascinating question, Dale! Clearly you do not have kids.
One reason: My understanding is that my child has to be schooled somehow, under penalty of law. Either public school, private school, or a home-school plan approved by the school system and actually followed (or enough resemblance thereto that you can file progress reports on said home-schooling plan). Parents receive a letter from the school system, to the effect that if the kid doesn't show up for school the parents will be reported to that agency of the state in charge of taking children away from bad parents and putting them into foster homes.
no subject
Date: 2013-03-05 03:41 pm (UTC)This might be worth considering if you daughter is young for her grade. There seem to be significant advantages to being old for one's grade. (Consider its effect on soccer careers: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/07/magazine/07wwln_freak.html?pagewanted=all)
no subject
Date: 2013-02-07 08:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-07 09:10 pm (UTC)I think it should be OK if people mature at different rates, as long as you get there eventually. Sophia wants to live in NYC or SF when she's in her twenties. Both of these cities have excellent transit systems. (Not that I won't teach her to drive if she's ready at the standard age.)
no subject
Date: 2013-03-01 10:53 pm (UTC)I'm astonished, because driving (especially in Boston) is the most nerve-wrackingly real-time activity I've ever done.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-07 08:26 pm (UTC)This problem is widespread in schools and has been for quite some time.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-12 09:16 pm (UTC)When the fundamental goal is to get the child to be able to do certain things quickly, by rote, being unable to do so due to being unable to cope with the stress has the same effect as not knowing the facts. Perhaps distinguishing the two causes would lead to different teaching regimens, but I don't know of any workable regimen other than "practice it until you get it right". (More about practice later.)
As for school generally, I take the Pinkeresque attitude that schooling is for teaching people things that humans are not good at and do not enjoy learning. (Contrasted with walking and talking, which humans have as natural skills, and have natural drives to learn.) In that regard, confidence in one's learned skills naturally comes from having learned the skills.
In my case, I did not like the early years of math. I was particularly truculent over two episodes, counting between 10 and 100, and multiplying large digits (6 through 9) by large digits. I was helped over that hump by my mother sitting down with me and forcing me to learn the stuff. (When I'm at a restaurant, I try to stick someone else with figuring out the bill.) OTOH, I liked algebra and geometry, and eventually went on to get a Ph.D. in math.
But I still don't like doing arithmetic, and when I'm at a restaurant, try to stick someone else with figuring out the bill. I doubt that's because I was taught arithmetic in an incorrect manner. But that's beside the point, because school's goal is to teach me arithmetic. Enjoying it is not particularly important. Worse, learning how to learn and perform well a skill one does not enjoy is a vital skill.
One of the more revealing/depressing studies I ever read of is someone who compared the employment outcomes of people who had graduated from high school with those who got GEDs. This was in the old days, before the MCAS and other exams to ensure that one did not get a high-school diploma without, like, actually learning the stuff. Whereas the GED required you to pass a stiff examination. It turns out that despite the GED holders actually knowing more of the material, they did worse in the job market. It seems that high school trains students (or filters them) for working smoothly in regimented, bureaucratic systems ... and that is a vital job skill.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-12 10:16 pm (UTC)