Chapter 1 - Article Reveiw - Constructivism

Article Research and Review -----


Constructivism (a.k.a. new math) is a theory that math should be learned by making computation seem real. This theory favors using the senses -- touch and feel -- as learning aids over learning unsupported rules from a lecture and notes. It is a way to get students more involved in their learning, so that material may stick with them. In "How to End Math Wars" by Claudia Wallis constructivism is seen as a good teaching method that is very hard to introduce into schools, because of the amount of teaching that instructors have to go through in order to teach children. The integration of this new theory into schools has created mass chaos, and has made schools revert to old lecture type math, which as viewed by the author will make kids hate math. Also in the article, "The Trials of New Math" almost the same view is presented. New math is a good thing yet making sure instructors know how to teach it is a whole other story. The main point is new math is good only when it is taught correctly, otherwise, it is best to use old math.
Constructivism seems to be an over done way to learn simple things. “We're in danger of raising a generation of kids who can't do computational arithmetic,"[1] says Max Beberman, the Illinois professor who strongly is against the constructivist theory. This new math seems to be a unusual way of teaching math, when all over the world people are learning it the “old math” way: lectures and notes. Since China and Korea are teaching their students one way and they are scoring higher on math and science tests than ever before. It seems useless to make learning more interactive when there is one end goal and that is to learn the facts. Why should it matter which way it is done as long as the facts are learned?

The new math puts a lot of stress on the people teaching it. “The hazard in teaching new math is that its basic concepts—sets, number systems not based on ten, lattices—require profound comprehension by teachers, which usually entails plenty of upgrading study.”[2] Teachers that are under qualified to teach by constructivism methods have to be pulled out of their jobs and taught the specific way of the theory. This puts a strain on the already low number of teachers and their pay is most likely not provided during training periods, because of the dwindling budgets of most school districts. New math has too many requirements before it is taught meaning there is too much of a hassle to teach by constructivism.

Educated persons claim that if children are taught the old math way, “Kids will learn their times tables for sure, but they'll also learn to hate math.”[3] I was taught the “old math” way which includes memorizing formulas to use them. No one in my school district learned the fluffy way: if you have nineteen cookies and three cookies, what number do you get if you put them together. The way all of us were taught was: What is the sum of nineteen and three? I personally love this lecture way of teaching math. It allows me to be still, listen, and take notes on something I enjoy. I may be one in a million, but before we even started introducing new math into the school systems wasn’t everything in balance?

Old Math seems to give the student more responsibility inside and outside of the classroom to learn the information given in a lecture. “In a Berkeley (Angelo, 1991) study on undergraduates in a large lecture hall setting, it was found that only 20 % of the students retained what the instructor discussed after the lecture. They were too busy taking notes to internalize the information. Also, after a lecture passed eight minutes, only 15 % of the students are paying attention.”[4] It seems that this study shows that students are not responding to the lectures that professors are giving. These statistics imply less students value what they are meant to learn in a certain class. It seems that new math is a way for educators to get around the students not taking responsibility for their education through the old math teachings.

In short, I think that old math is better than new math. Old Math allows students to take more responsibility for their learning. Teaching the old math way does not necessarily mean that students will hate math, and it is a good way to get into “raw” math without having any fluff of how many cookies there are. Old Math should be taught in

Footnotes:

[1] http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,940873-1,00.html
[2] http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,940873-1,00.html
[3]http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1561144-2,00.html
[4] http://www.inform.umd.edu/UMS+State/UMD-Projects/MCTP/Essays/Constructivism.txt