Battleground Schools

One thing that stood out to me in this reading was the table which outlined “Dichotomies Underlying Different Stances in Mathematics Education” (p.392). The section about the nature of student work and conservatives views of the student absorbing and applying facts versus the progressives view of the student which includes inquiry and sense making. The progressives view of the nature of the student is very similar to that of many of today’s school systems. However, I have found that some teachers and institutions still support and emphasize the conservative view of the student. I would say I experienced more of a conservative view of the student from my teachers, however in this program and throughout university I experienced a more progressive approach to learning. I as well agree that there is real value in having students partake in inquiry and sense making as these skills regardless of the subject they are learned in will be helpful throughout life.

Another stop that I had was surrounding the Bouraki-influenced new math curriculum, which set out to include modern mathematics in the K-12 school system such as, linear algebra, calculus, abstract algebra and set theory. The idea behind this was to prepare and familiarize students with a mathematics basis of knowledge for potential future careers as scientists. I found this very interesting, as I do think that more aspects of these fields of mathematics present throughout our K-12 system could be extremely helpful as students go to university as they may have a sense of familiarity to concepts or even just words. I think this familiarity would in turn make these concepts less overwhelming initially when they first see it in university.

Finally, the aspect of the New Math supporters view that every student was going to be a scientist or mathematician stood out to me and made me think deeper about my above comments on including more modern mathematics in the K-12 system. The realization that the majority of students in a public K-12 school system do not want to pursue a career in science or mathematics is something that I often think about as a future math teacher. How much higher level or modern more theoretical types of math should be included in K-12 systems as most students will not go on to study in math. I have always thought it would be extremely helpful to have these aspects of math in high schools, however, now looking at it from a teacher's perspective I can see how it may be counter productive in that it would benefit the majority of students more to focus on more practical aspects of mathematics. Although it could potentially still be beneficial if possible to have those more abstract aspects of math explored briefly in high school for those students who intend to further pursue math or science.