To solve students' math problems, eucators go to school - Boosting teacher skills seen as key

Boston Globe ^ | August 18, 2003 | Sharon Kahn Luttrell

[Cincinatus' Wife]

MILFORD - Meagan Washington took just two math courses when she was studying to become a teacher, one in basic math and one in teaching methods. Now a fourth-grade teacher in Westborough, she sometimes feels overwhelmed trying to prepare 9- and 10-year-olds for state tests on everything from fractions and decimals to multiplication algorithms.

[KC_for_Freedom]

When I taught HS Math (with a degree in Electrical Engineering) the math was no problem. I do believe one must understand a subject to teach it. That said, I want to comment on your other point that learning takes hard work.

My High School was fed from a wealthy neighborhood, a middle class neighborhood, and a poor neighborhood. We instituted a placement test and found that the wealthy kids tested into Geometry, the Middle class into Algebra, and the poor kids tested into basic math.

In looking into this further, I found the wealthy teachers gave about 14 pages of math exercises each night. (They could afford paper and had an aide to run them off). The middle class kids got about 4 pages of exercises and the poor kids got one or none.

Of course there may be other factors, like parents in the home... but the kids did test in relationship to the amount of effort that was required of them. Period. This was 20 years ago, and I suspect the standards have been slipping, but the single most important indicator of success in school is homework level.

[mathluv]

We have been doing this in Texas for over 20 years. Modules, then Institutes, have been developed for training teachers in teaching math from PreK through Geometry. Thousands of teachers have been trained. The state standards have gone from TABS to TAAS to TEKS to TAKS. The state tests are supposedly getting harder.

I am not sure that it has really made a difference. There are still teachers who do not like math, and should not be teaching it.

[mathluv]

They're too busy teaching education theory. That bs is easier to teach and doesn't require any brains.

You really don't expect college professors to have to change their lesson plans, do you? They have had the same ones since their first year to pontificate.

[mathluv]

I am a retired Math teacher. While getting my masters, I had one class on learning how to teach math - elementary. I had no classes on true teaching while getting my BS. I had already taught secondary math several years, and I learned some things about math and about teaching in that class. Most of the other students were elementary teachers, and had a hard time with it.

While working on my PhD in math ed, I had NO classes on truly how to teach - just more "theory". 2 classes were beneficial. while there, the curriculum for elementary majors was changed. Now they had to have fewer methods classes, and had to take Calculus. True methods classes are what is needed. not higher level math - to teach K-1.

[mathluv]

I am a girl (woman). I am very good in math. Most of my classmates in college who were female were even better in math. Most of the students I have taught in math who have been good were girls. This is an old stereotype that is false. Girls are generally better students than boys because they will make the effort.

[xzins]

My wife is a high school math teacher (geo, trig, pre-cal, cal). Her favorite saying is "math is NOT a spectator sport."

In math, as you know, before you go to step 2, it is necessary to understand step 1. (You can slide around a subjective class ....put Longfellow before Poe, or teach the Civil War before the Roman Empire. It really doesn't matter.)

But she can predict student grades simply on the basis of who does the homework. You gotta keep up.

[Taxguy]

Both my parents (and Grandmother) taught math at the JC level; my mother also taught at the HS level. My father was an enginnering major and my mother was a math and education major. From experience, my mother knows more math and is the better teacher; I had her for freshman alegebra. I later took calculus in college and she was the one who had help me; my father had not used his math skills for several years and no longer remembered enough to teach effectively. In the JC, my mother taught the higher level courses and he taught the more basis one.

[Republic If You Can Keep It]

This is an old stereotype that is false

Actually it's true. Boys beat girls every year in the math SATs......no exceptions.

8 times as many boys get perfect SATs as girls.

At the university level, males make up the vast majority of math, physics & engineering majors. It isn't even close.

[Amelia]

True methods classes are what is needed. not higher level math - to teach K-1.

I agree with you that most education classes teach more theory than methods, when methods are more useful. I agree that elementary school teachers don't need to know calculus.

But darn it, if they are supposed to be teaching addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of fractions, they ought to be able to work the problems themselves - and not all of them can.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

``Fourth grade is a rigorous year with that [testing] cloud hanging over us in the spring,'' said Washington, who teaches at Mill Pond Elementary School. ``My background in math is not the strongest, and I'm pretty aware of that.''

Apparently teachers don't get much math past 3rd grade.

[Amelia]

Boys do better in math than girls. Most teachers are girls. What did we expect?

On the SAT, I did better on the math than the verbal. I also did better on the math than 99% of boys or girls - and I'm a girl.

But if we assume your premise is correct, and math education is inferior because most teachers are female, how do boys still manage to learn?

[Amelia]

I'm sorry to bunch you all together but I do believe you a propping up a terrible public school system and the union that feeds on our children.

May I correct your typo to show that I'm not totally ignorant? ;-)

The public school system may be terrible, but for most families, it's the only one available. Fortunately or unfortunately, the quality of a particular school is largely a function of the condition of the community in which the school exists.

You may feel I'm "propping up" the system, I feel I'm working to change it from the inside. As long as most educators are liberals, the system will never change, or will only change cosmetically.

I don't belong to the union, because I refuse to support them. Please understand that not belonging to the union carries risks, because union membership is the only method of purchasing professional liability insurance in my state, and teachers can be sued personally as well as professionally.

The bottom line, however, is that it's not just the teachers, and it's not just the system: it's also the families, the communities, and the culture. Schools won't change until and unless all of these change.

[Republic If You Can Keep It]

But if we assume your premise is correct, and math education is inferior because most teachers are female, how do boys still manage to learn?

First of all, no need to assume anything. The SAT data I cited above are absolutely correct & easily verifiable by Internet search.

The fact that men are better at math doesn't necessarily mean that they are also better at teaching math. Teaching involves a different set of skills. (I understand that Einstein was a poor teacher.)

Lastly, the brightest students are capable of learning more than their teachers know.....which has always been true.

[Republic If You Can Keep It]

The public school system may be terrible, but for most families, it's the only one available...

What a great argument for vouchers!

[Amelia]

no need to assume anything. The SAT data I cited above are absolutely correct & easily verifiable

I know that boys tend to score higher in math on the SATs...I meant the premise that math education is inferior because of the preponderance of female teachers.

the brightest students are capable of learning more than their teachers know.

I'd say that the majority of students are capable of learning much more than they do - but they don't for a variety of reasons. Some teachers don't enforce high standards because they've bought into the whole "self-esteem" thing, and in some systems they aren't allowed to - at least initially, if the students aren't used to having to work, failure rates will be high, and some administrators don't allow that.

Some students just aren't willing to put in the effort required, regardless.

What a great argument for vouchers!

Yes, at least in places where good private schools are available. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm afraid that vouchers will do the least good for the students who need them most.

[mathluv]

What is true is that girls are not encouraged to do the 'hard' subjects. It is not the ability, it is the lack of ever being encouraged to try. (future soccer moms)

[Republic If You Can Keep It]

What is true is that girls are not encouraged to do the 'hard' subjects

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Girls are given every encouragement over boys in today's feminized school system, but they still cannot touch boys in math.

Read C. Sommers' "The War Against Boys".

What we're talking about here is a difference in math ability......undeniable based on SAT data, which is consistent year after year, decade after decade, with no exceptions.

[Republic If You Can Keep It]

Yes, at least in places where good private schools are available

True.

But in time demand will create supply. Good teachers like you will leave the failing public system & establish new private schools. It will take time but it will happen.

I think that vouchers, long term, will be a winner.

[spunkets]

It beats me why they can't do this simple math already. They paid all that money to go to school and get their degree, yet they're still ignorant.

"$12 million in state funds and $8 million from districts."

Throwing money at this won't help. All they need to do is buy a $40 grade school math book and read it. I'm sure there's some 6th graders that would be willing to coach them for some spending $s also.

[mathluv]

Are you in the classroom?