POSTED ON BEHALF OF DOUG

Really doubt that tablet computers will make a dimes worth of difference in math. Technology in education has always been heavily overrated and almost always disappoints but there is a lot of money to be make by tech companies and so this is what we get.

In 2 years people will be saying, wht ever happened to Sal Khan. Meanwhile rural schools in NS keep closing. Wrong priorities.

Oh boy another test for university because all the tests in elementary school and high school worked so well right? Another wasted effort. Americans are now spending something like $1.7 B on testing with nothing to show for it.

Khan Academy will be around for a long time after because of the math curriculum and instruction is constructivism methods.

In the first article - two names -  late John Van de Walle and Constance Kamii can be thank for leading the charge in decreasing math achievement while ensuring the vast majority has major troubles in algebra and geometry. And one can forget about the vast majority not be able to even think about taking high school trig and calculus.

John Van de Walle -  One can thank Van de Walle for this one - “The basic tenet of constructivism is simply this: Children construct their own knowledge. Construction requires tools.  The tools children use to construct knowledge are the ideas they already have.  To use ideas to construct new ideas means that children must be mentally engaged in the act of learning.  They must call up those ideas that are relevant and use them to give meaning to the new or emerging or changing ideas that they are developing. “
http://mathematicallysane.com/reform-mathematics-vs-the-basics/

Of course - no one is allow to teach the math rules and somewhere in a grade 11 math class, there is a teacher teacher outlining the rules in decimals, fractions or some other arithmetic concept. How many hours are wasted in high school on concepts that should have been taught and master in elementary school? ” Direct, rule-oriented methods failed them miserably and will fail today’s children in exactly the same manner. “

As for Kamii - “Kamii studied under Jean Piaget on and off for 15 years to develop an early childhood curriculum based on his theory. This work can be seen in Physical Knowledge in Preschool Education (1978) and Group Games in Early Education (1980), which she wrote with Rheta Devries, and Number in Preschool and Kindergarten (1982). From 1980 to 2000, she developed a primary arithmetic program based on Piaget’s theory. She abandoned this effort in 2000 because many parents of fourth graders were teaching “carrying” and “borrowing” at home.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constance_Kamii

Of course both preach algorithms are bad bad for children, but Kamii went further that it was morally wrong to introduced algorithms. It is firmly entrenched in today’s math curriculum and instruction under the new label of social equity. Apparently, in the world of Kamii and Van de Walle - it is an injustice for children to learn algorithms to mastery. The first victims has always been the students.

Meanwhile, while these two were busy with lowering achievement in math across the globe, others were engaged in improving math instruction. Below is one such person,  an educator who does the impossible everyday, disproving the myths, beliefs and ideologies that are commonplace in public schools that thinks in the 19th century knowledge matrix.

“Christopher Woodin is a specialist in the fields of mathematics and learning disabilities. A graduate of
Middlebury College and Harvard Graduate School of Education, he has taught extensively at
Landmark School in Massachusetts. At Landmark School, EMS Campus, he holds the Ammerman
Chair of Mathematics.”
http://www.landmarkschool.org/files/6.26.12cwXFactBook.pdf

350 pages of what actually works. It can be applied to any student, any diverse primary classroom and algorithms are mastered plus acquiring the deep knowledge of being able to manipulate the numbers and become experts in seeking out patterns. I know it works because I used some of the same methods for my child, to where the impossible became a reality. Much to the dismay of all the math consultants at the board level pushing a version of constructivist math. You see the math consultant kept pushing that I was harming my child. When that did not work, they started to pushed that I was giving my child an unfair advantage.
http://dyslexia.yale.edu/math.html

As for the new standardized test for college students - its not going to work. I don’t think any employer is going to hired anyone on the basis of a score on a standardized test. Its another way of devaluing a post-secondary degree where specialized knowledge is devalued in favour of a score on a standardized test.