Interview Summary

What we Asked:

5 Questions for Students:

1. What do you like about other subjects that you don't find in math?
2. Do you think the math you learn will help you in your life and how so?
3. Do you think the grades you get in math reflect your knowledge or understanding?
4. Give reasons math should or shouldn't be learned if a student "knows" they won't use it in their future?
5. Which classes that you are taking currently do you think will be most useful in your life?
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

5 Questions for Teachers:

1. What do you wish someone told you when you were starting out the profession?
2. What are your views on technology in the classroom as a teaching tool?
3. As course learning outcomes shrink, how does this benefit/detract from the class?
4. What methods of evaluation do you find works best?(quizzes, tests, homework, participation)
5. Do you add depth to the course material with extra information like introduction to complex or fundamental ideas? Why or why not?

What Happened:

We interviewed three high school students, all through email.  They all found math to be an okay subject but none of them really loved it.  Their negative views stemmed from their belief that math class is uncreative and doesn’t allow opportunities for group collaboration, experiments or other less solitary work.  Again all three agreed that math is useful and should be learned up to about grade 10, at which point they thought math became useless for everyday life.

   

The idea of "floundering" in the first few years was apparent.  The "how" in asking a colleague was not hard it was the "what?"  That is, with all these ideas of classroom management, content, and good rapport swirling around, it was hard to form the best question for that situation.  It was clear a mentor is the most valuable source because one cannot find this information in books. 

   
Technology in the classroom was thought of as a good supplement to the course, but all three teachers agreed it was not a good tool to be used in place of teaching.  They said that using technology too often or before students fully understand the concept sometimes caused extra confusion for students.  One teacher said although his students loved some of the technology/software he used to use in his lessons, he realized they weren’t actually learning anything from it - even though they were having fun - so he has since stopped using it.

   
The curriculum is shrinking and weakening.  Learning outcomes are fewer with less of a level required for mastery in math.  This affects us on a global scale as countries continue to "innovate" each year and within a few years their respective curricula  has doubled when ours' has decreased.  We are trying to "pass" our students and let them graduate from high school.  The solution is for a "stream-lined" approach.  Most students are not ready to take principles of math 10 since the grade eight and nine curriculum focuses on general math and is not connected with grade 10 and beyond.  Enrichment in grade eight and nine is a band-aid fix.  The real solution comes in the stream-lining of math from grade one.

   

All three teachers were very interested in the question about student assessment. All three use a similar method of assessment: constant formative assessment followed by final summative assessment. Using constant feedback the teachers track the students understanding of the material and give bonus marks for quality group work, inquiries that help to further the lesson, and to students willing to present their work to the class. None of the teachers see any reason to punitively mark homework, which they view as content the students are in the process of learning. At the end of each unit students are required to perform on a unit exam, this is the graded portion of the class. The teachers stressed that any bonus marks are given for performance, and not participation. One teacher also uses “math journals” to keep track of her student’s progress. She has them write in their journals during the last two minutes of class every day and then reads over them to test how well they understand the lesson.

   
The instances where extending or introducing complex ideas can be used as an introductory tool.  Of course it is not the main focus but these concepts that go beyond the curriculum can be addressed with research projects on the history of mathematics or when a new topic is being taught.  The latter idea is a good transition into a new lesson because it can utilize concepts from physics or other sciences to give a taste of how the concept fits in with the scope of the lesson.