“Dan Meyer: Math class needs a makeover”
Today’s math curriculum is teaching students to expect — and excel at — paint-by-numbers classwork, robbing kids of a skill more important than solving problems: formulating them. At TEDxNYED, Dan Meyer shows classroom-tested math exercises that prompt students to stop and think.
Dan Meyer asks, “How can we design the ideal learning experience for students?” As a part-time Googler, a provocative blogger and a full-time high-school math teacher, his perspective on curriculum design, teacher education and teacher retention is informed by tech trends and online discourse as much as front-line experience with students.
Meyer has spun off his enlightening message — that teachers “be less helpful” and push their students to formulate the steps to solve math problems — into a nationwide tour-of-duty on the speaking circuit.
“I teach high school math. I sell a product to a market that doesn’t want it but is forced by law to buy it.” — Dan Meyer
Comments
TED math
Robert,
Thanks for sharing this. I love hearing the TED speakers. It would be so exciting to be in his math class. I think students would NEVER ask the question, "but how does this apply to my life" or "I would never use this is RL " because they are involved. As far as thinking skills and the use of math, this makes sense. There are so many kids out there who have memorized formulas but don't know how or when to use them but probably got a good grade on that unit's test.
Have you seen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLprXHbn19I ?
Kathy
thanks robert!
This is GREAT -- just the kind of thing we need here -- I was unfamiliar with this guy but now will send out a link to the video and his blog to our math teachers. THANKS so much for posting -- and please do keep posting this kind of stuff, it's really useful.
Dan's Blog
I've been following Dan Meyer's blog for the last year or so. I really enjoy his "what would you do with this" questions - he posts a picture that is open to mathematical interpretation, then folks post comments about the higher order questions they might ask. Then Dan follows up with the question HE would ask, and it's always a deep, thought-provoking way to make students think about multiple solutions. He rarely gives the question, let alone the answer! I also like what he's done with annual reports (see this post); short presentations that capture all of the data about his life, along with a "contest" for other people to present their annual report.