Would you "afterschool" a college class?

[Dmmetler]

My DD12 is taking a college math course this semester. The problem sets are submitted online and are relatively short (15-20 questions), and simply aren't taking her very long, nowhere near the hour+ a day we spent on AoPS. She's doing well so far, but I really kind of feel she should be doing math daily-as it stands, she usually finishes the assignment in the time given at the end of class for the students to start the assignment and ask any questions. I am a little concerned that she won't retain the content through the semester and even more into further semesters.

 

The question is, is it reasonable to force afterschooling on a kid who is taking a class at a level where students would normally be completely independent? This is definitely new for me. Her high school level online classes usually assign enough work that it seems sufficient to me, so to have the college class being the light one is a little surprising-the whole reason to only have her do one instead of a heavier load was to transition into what I assumed would be a harder, heavier workload.

[regentrude]

what kind of math class is that? Is this actually a college level math course that gives real credit, or is it something that is considered remedial? The workload and level depend greatly on the target audience of the class.

If she spends this little time, I would not afterschool but rather question whether she is placed correctly and whether that institution is rigorous enough. A real math college course should require the student to work 2 hours outside of class for every hour in class.

ETA: This sounds as if she is a strong student in a remedial class for struggling students - not a suitable placement for an accelerated young learner.

Just for perspective: anything below College Algebra at our school is only taken by students who have serious gaps in high school level math; the credit counts towards no major. College Algebra is taken by students whose high school math is so weak that they can't place at least into trigonometry. The level of the math courses at the CC is far worse; their "college" level algebra is not even taught at high school level.

 

 

Edited February 1, 2017 by regentrude

[Guest]

You could give her a resource with more challenging problems and let her choose to dive in.

 

Its a good idea though to use some of the study time to review. I insisted ds review.the first college math class thoroughly. Sure enough, Thirty percent of the final consisted of two concepts that he had been assigned one problem each.

[Arcadia]

My husband and I did afterschool university classes up to PhD level because every subject was lockstep and sometimes we just want to go deeper or be more proficient. I won't find it unusual to afterschool a college class regardless of age of student.

[Dmmetler]

It's a college class, but it's one required for K-8 math/science education, not one required for her biology major. It seems to be mostly formal logic this first semester (2 semester sequence). Her current goal is to do outreach and science communications, so both degrees are needed, and Math doesn't overlap at all except for statistics.

 

My assumption is that there are problems in the book that aren't explicitly assigned and/or a way to get more from the software (or that it automatically assigns more if the ones assigned are missed-this whole e-book/online package stuff is new to me), but so far, she truly only has those small number of problems officially assigned.

[Wheres Toto]

It sounds like the math class I had to take when I was studying elementary education (with a biology minor).  I don't remember what it was called but it was not a remedial level class.  It covered some logic, some algebra, some trig, some geometry - kind of an overview of math.   I already had college calculus at that point but they still required that specific class for my degree.  I found it super-simple even though it had been 10 years since I had taken a math class.

[Have kids -- will travel]

College level classes vary greatly in difficulty, and I would expect a CC math class aimed at education majors to be low level. 

 

How long has she been in this class? All my classes started low key and ramped up the intensity as the semester went on, so it's also possible that this is the beginning and relatively easy compared to later expectations.

 

I would not afterschool a college class, in the same way I have no intention of afterschooling middle and high school. Placement should be addressed instead.

 

I'll add an additional point. Very few of my college classes required that I turn in homework. There were recommended problems, and you could do them or not. There were classes where I did fewer problems than assigned and classes where I did more problems than were assigned. 

 

Up to you, but if the class is a waste of time, I wouldn't ask her to do of the same. I'd either let her coast for the class and decide for herself what preparations she needs, or I'd find a different class to take. 

[pkbab5]

It's a college class, but it's one required for K-8 math/science education, not one required for her biology major. It seems to be mostly formal logic this first semester (2 semester sequence). Her current goal is to do outreach and science communications, so both degrees are needed, and Math doesn't overlap at all except for statistics.

 

My assumption is that there are problems in the book that aren't explicitly assigned and/or a way to get more from the software (or that it automatically assigns more if the ones assigned are missed-this whole e-book/online package stuff is new to me), but so far, she truly only has those small number of problems officially assigned.

Your kid is crazy smart.  Why is she in a "math for educators" class?  That's not the right placement.

 

You want the full calculus sequence, and differential equations.  Has she already done those?

 

If I read correctly, she has to have it for her second degree goal?  She might be able to sub some math from the biology sequence for the math from the education sequence.  She should ask the department or an advisor or someone if she can do that.  They may not overlap on paper, but they may overlap "with permission".

 

If you can't get any traction going that route, I do have a suggestion for some fun college level math that you could afterschool with.  The most challenging but "fun" math I ever took in college was Graph Theory and Combinatorics.  It's brain bogglers on steroids, and also where you learn about the math problems that still haven't been solved.  :)

[Renai]

I agree with pp. Having a higher level of math should mean she doesn't need a math for educators. She should be able to substitute for that class. At least in my state, she'd be able to. It's on par with college algebra (or below) in our elementary education licensing system. Now, if it is a class to learn how to teach math (which most aren't), that would be different.

[Dmmetler]

This one is a hybrid-taught by a math professor and an education professor. The Math content is trivial, but I'm growing more and more impressed with how they're managing the how to teach math part of it (DD was working with addition and subtraction methodologies this past week, with a real focus on looking at student work and trying to figure out how their mistakes lead you to know what to do to reteach).

[pkbab5]

Ah well if it's teaching how to teach math, that sounds like a worthwhile class.  Not really a "math" class though.

 

Does she want some higher math this semester?  Is she getting bored?  I would afterschool if she wants to.  But if she doesn't, I wouldn't be completely opposed to a bit of a break. 

[Renai]

Yes, that makes sense. A methodologies class would use a lower-level math so the focus is on the how-to. How lucky! You wouldn't believe how many teaching programs don't have how-to-teach-subjects courses.