Sunday, April 13, 2014

This Sunday's Math Sermon…


"...every decent maths teacher knows that teaching maths is about understanding how different people think. Some students need to see the bigger picture first – they need context, they need a reason for doing things, they need to know what the end result will be. Others are happy to discover things for themselves and they enjoy the process as much as the outcome. Some are comfortable thinking in an abstract way; others need a more concrete approach. Many students impose their own rules which don’t quite work and we need to unpick what they are doing and figure out what their underlying thinking is.  I like this challenge of figuring out how people think. Studying history gave me a good grounding in understanding that not everyone sees the world in the same way."
The above comes from a li'l musing (dare I say rant?) from a British secondary math teacher who has a history degree where one might expect a math background. I LOVE what she has to say here:

http://mathematicalmagpie.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/you-mean-you-have-arts-degree-pulls.html

Toward the end she writes, "I’d like to finish by arguing that, rather than being afraid of people who cross the invisible arts/science divide, more of us should come out and celebrate it."

...Amen

And lastly she vows: "All I can say is, if anyone tries to put me in a box, I’ll soon be fighting my way out."

As a bird lover, I even love this blogger's Internet handle: "the mathematical magpie"... go read the whole lovely post.


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