Reply to What is this ES math??

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The Eureka way is dumb imo. My dad who taught college math for over 40 years (still teaching!) asked why are they teaching simple arithmetic this way? [/quote]

People who teach college math are the LAST people to consult about teaching math to elementary-school students imo.[/quote]Or, the FIRST because they see all the pitfalls that lead to math deficiency down the line![/quote]

College math professors might be able to say [i]that[/i] people are having problems with college math, but they will not be able to explain why, because they don't understand how to teach math effectively to general people, and especially not elementary-school math.

Anecdotally, some of the math professors I had in college were worse at teaching math than my high school math teacher who was primarily the girls' softball coach.[/quote]

Anecdotally, the best math teachers I ever had were in college.

Perhaps the only thing thing we can safely conclude from our respective anecdotes is that personal anecdotes are an unreliable basis on which to form generalizations.

I do believe that subject matter experts need to be involved in the development and review of a subject’s curriculum.  The curriculum generated by MCPS seems to be developed by staff that are supposedly pedagogical experts rather than subject matter experts, and so there is less emphasis on content, and less understanding in how it fits together and builds on itself to form the necessary foundation for higher levels.

Actually, I highly recommend the book Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics by Liping Ma. To your point, she’s a schoolteacher, not a college professor, who compares the effectiveness of math instruction in China and the US.  Her book would support your position that it doesn’t take a professor to effectively teach math, but it does take someone with a deep (not necessarily advanced) understanding of the subject and a focus on the subject in the curriculum. [/quote]

PP you're responding to, and I also had two outstanding math teachers in higher education - one a full professor with tenure, the other an adjunct so maybe that doesn't count. However, I think the professor was an outstanding teacher DESPITE being a professor, not BECAUSE OF being a professor. Yes, you need to understand the subject matter. But you also need to know how to teach the subject matter. We all know plenty of people who are technical whizzes (in academics, sports, music, whatever) who can't teach.[/quote]

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