1 year, 12 months ago-
In what ways do the five Math Minds principles resonate with your current views about teaching and learning mathematics? In what ways do they challenge your current views? In what ways do they prompt you to think about things you may not have considered before?
The five Math Minds principles align quite well with my view about teaching and learning mathematics. Mathematics is something that we are equally capable of doing, however, some may struggle more than others due to the method of delivery, cognitive overload, or negative preconceptions of their abilities. I believe all students are able to be proficient in mathematics so long as the brain is not overloaded with information and they are given a visual demonstration of how a problem is broken down. The principle of “the working memory is limited” helps to show that when students are in information overload, they feel as though they are unable to successfully complete a problem. By breaking up a problem into smaller sections and explaining each component in depth, students are given the foundational knowledge to solve difficult problems. The brain is able to take each individual component of an equation and “link overlapping events” to find commonalities in a problem.
The analogy of the brain as plastic prompted me to think differently. You have the “container” that acquires and takes in the new information, this allows the “computer” to store and compute the information for it to be expanded (ecosystem). Mathematics seemed very streamlined to me beforehand; my mindset was fixed on learning information and simply using it to solve a given equation, not going beyond to expand possibilities.
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