Reflections on "Conversations with Math Teachers and Students" - Assignment 1

In doing this assignment, I found that there were some responses that were completely in line with my expectations and some opinions that took me by surprise. But all in all, I think that there was definitely some value in learning how students and teachers that were not in my position felt about math classes in our schools.

As expected, the students we interviewed unanimously found math classes to be fairly boring compared to their other classes. They all seemed inclined to find the subject to be dry and unentertaining. Furthermore, due to the cumulative nature of the teaching, should the student become confused at one point during the lecture, they would give up on really considering the material and resign themselves to copying down notes for later review. Those that did do further review of their class notes was able to do and preferred to do, much of their learning through completing assignments, visiting their teacher and asking their questions on a one-on-one basis, or meeting with a private tutor.

What surprised me was that our students found that they didn’t really dislike the methods of teaching that they had been exposed to. Although they found that they were often lost in class, they were fairly comfortable with the lecture style of teaching mathematics. They're biggest concerns seem to involve asking clarifying questions in class for fear of sounding 'stupid' to their peers. Some students thought that it might be more interesting to be engaged in some group work but this was to be to enhance the lecture as opposed to replacing it altogether. Furthermore, although all the students had some struggles with the curriculum, they all seemed to respect those that were adept at math and found value and interest in at least some topics. Both of the Grade 12 students stressed the density of the information that came from lectures and problems to be the main reason for any resulting confusion rather than the style of which the material was taught. Their proposed solution to this problem was for teachers to give their students small breaks in which to digest the material with a short joke or story to divert their attention before re-entering the lecture. They felt that this would give them a chance to relax briefly and refresh their minds in order to maintain the necessary level of focus to follow along in class.

I found this exercise to be more interesting than I had expected. I found that all the people we interviewed valued the humanness of the teacher over teaching style. If students found that they could trust the teacher to have their best interests in mind, they were more inclined to care about doing well in the class if not actually care about the subject. It seems to me that the secret in successfully teaching math is to make sure to be in tune with how the class is adjusting to new material and to keep cracking jokes, no matter how bad, and to be prepared and patient enough to answer all levels of questions.