The Math Wars Article

[happybeachbum]

I knew the Math Wars are crazy, but wow.  It's just a bunch of back and forth http://www.mathismore.net/articles/pdf/Schoenfeld_MathWars.pdf Makes me think about what John Holt saying in an interview about this.  As a teacher he probably had experience with this.  This also makes me think of a great Basic Math teacher I had in one of my Dev math courses in college.  He was a retired high school math teacher.  He had taught 40 years.  He taught pre-sputnik and told us how teaching math changed after that.

Edited June 7, 2017 by happybeachbum

[bookbard]

Thank you so much for this. It brings me back to my university days where we were taught the one true way to teach reading/maths (direct instruction) with absolutely no balanced discussion of other research or viewpoints. This article explains a lot!

[wapiti]

I just skimmed.  The author's conclusion about there being a middle ground is correct, IMO.  He quotes Phil Daro toward the end and while I probably agree with much of the quote, I would argue that Daro's own position isn't in the middle ground.

 

Daro (who does not have a degree in mathematics; IIRC, his degree is in English) was in charge of adopting the NCTM standards in California in the early 1990s.  Later, Daro likewise used a lot of NCTM language and ideas when writing the standards for Common Core, which, it is thought, is a reason some of the first CC published materials have a fuzzy math vibe (publishers taking signals from the language of the standards in pulling from already-published materials).  Daro now works for Pearson.

 

Daro has been outspoken "against answer getting."  I haven't watched the famous youtube video yet.  I imagine that I might agree with him on many underlying ideas, though IMO that title sounds pretty darn fuzzy.

Edited June 7, 2017 by wapiti