Grant and Zeichner’s Article Sept. 14

Grant and Zeichner’s article “On Becoming a Reflective Teacher” made me think a lot about the teaching profession and there are a few points that really intrigued me. I was interested by the article mentioning the amount a choice a teacher faces on a day to day basis and over the course of their careers. From the choice of teaching style, instructional values and views, to which content to stress as being critical, to how we teach to specific groups of children and even our attitude as to how we go about teaching. Futhermore, what this article discusses is relevant to modern teaching as well. Teachers have a lot of impact on the lives of their students. The theme of the impact that teachers have on their students resonated with me becuase I am a math tutor and have seen this impact firsthand. “Reflective action” was the vocabulary in the article that stood out to me the most. I don't believe that there is one approach that solves teaching and learning, however, there are best practices in each style, pedagogy, etc. that can be used to make the classroom the best, more inclusive learning space it can possibly be.

Final Reflection on EDUC 450

I learned a lot about different styles of education especially embodied, multi/cross-disciplinary, and outdoor learning. I had never experienced many of these styles of education before so it was an informative and enlightening experience. One of my favourite aspects of this course was the learning about multi/cross-disciplinary pedagogies. For instance, in one class we learned about rope making, weaving, and braiding. I tried a traditional form of bag weaving which was a really interesting experience because it was a indigenous form of weaving from another part of the world and it was challenging! Figuring out how it was meant to be done and what the pattern might be took me a good portion of the class, but by the end of the class I had settled on a pattern and was able to make substantial progress on a bag. This was an interesting activity because there elements of math (the pattern) but also Indigenous ways of knowing, critical thinking, and problem solving involved; so much of which is involved in mathematics in general. I also really enjoyed the inquiry project aspect of the course as it satisfied my desire for autonomy, choice and relatedness. I think my main suggestion for improving this course would be to focus more on the inquiry project side of things and allow students more exploration in an area of their choosing. This was the strongest part of the course for me, I enjoyed the research, the collaboration with other students, and coming up with ideas about my subject area.

Final Project Slides and Reflection

 https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1qLdufvO58D6oKedjwJ7fSl9MCZEUAqd50kt-JeygpmM/edit?usp=sharing

Reflection

During this inquiry project I learned a lot about my own position on what makes math interesting through reflection and consideration of my own math journey, while also simultaneously learning about the educational systems of highly successful countries Finland and Singapore and their techniques to achieve such success. Did they care about student interest in the subject? Or was their goal only to get high scores on PISA testing? It turns out that interest in mathematics is a foundational principal in their education systems and I learned how they define 'interest' and the purpose it serves in their system. There are so many interesting aspects of this project that I discovered along the journey. If I were to consider what to take forward into future inquiry, I would want to investigate more into how our education system is fundamentally structured to support student interest, how higher mathematics could be integrated into the high school curriculum, and I would possibly want to dive deeper into the education system of Finland. This project lead me in many interesting directions, many of which I did not expect. For example, I did not expect to feel so strongly about integrating higher mathematics into the high school classroom, but when I thought about it over an extended period of time, the more it seemed to make sense. If we want students to be interested in math, then we need to make math relevant to them and give them the most interesting problems mathematics has to offer. Many of the concepts in calculus, abstract algebra, geometry, etc. can be broken down, simplified and made approachable for unseasoned mathematicians. Many of the concepts in these topics already connect to the fundamentals our curriculum is based on. From this point in my inquiry, I am very interested in pursuing inquiry into the technological revolution of education and what that means for the framework of our school systems.

Dec. 2 Exit Slip

 I enjoyed learning about the change ringing practices and how it relates to combinatorics. It's a very practical problem that we could give to students and ask them to figure out how a team of people ringing bells could simply move through the various combinations. The answer of course is the end switch, middle switch algorithm which enables easy navigation of combinations. I think this would make an excellent activity to explore combinatorics but also learn about mathematics in everyday life and how intertwined mathematics is in seemingly simple activities like ringing bells. Furthermore, this could be a great way to introduce braiding and weaving patterns in general which you could connect to Indigenous education which I think essentially is our job as educators, to facilitate students making connects and expanding their intellectual horizons.

Annotated Bibliography

1.  Paksuniemi, M., Keskitalo, P., & Brill Online Books. (2019). Introduction to the Finnish educational system. Brill Sense.

       This source provides detailed information on the Finish education system which is a point of interest for my inquiry project. It gives the history, modern formulation, and even includes aspects of their system with relation to Indigenous education. I will be looking at the foundational ideals behind the Finnish education system this book discusses and relating them to how they help create better mathematics learners and genuine interest in those learners.

2. Yarborough, C. B., & Fedesco, H. N. (2020). Motivating students. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved Nov. 24 2021 from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu//cft/guides-sub-pages/motivating-students/.

    This article is about motivating students and specific tools that can be used to increase intrinsic motivation. Interest and motivation are linked concepts and it is one aspect of my project that I will be exploring. Specifically, I will be using their expectancy-value-cost framework as an example and their insights on self-determination theory to provide concrete ideas for how teachers can create interest in students.

3. Stemhagen, K., Henney, C., & Taylor & Francis eBooks A-Z. (2021). Democracy and mathematics education: Rethinking school math for our troubled times. Routledge.

Democracy and mathematics education is about a modern approach to mathematics education that is founded in student inquiry and relates math to society and democratic practices. Figuring out what makes math interesting involves finding educational practices that motivate students and enable them to find interests in previously boring or uninspiring subjects. I will be using their tenets of democratic mathematics to argue for a more social and collaborative approach to math education.

4. Danesi, M., SpringerLink (Online service), & SpringerLINK ebooks - Education. (2016). Learning and teaching mathematics in the global village: Math education in the digital age (1st 2016. ed.). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32280-3

This source also discusses modern mathematics education and how innovations in technology have transformed pedagogical practices. If students are to be interested in technical and sometimes challenging subjects we must modernize our teaching practices to remove barriers to education. I am personally an advocate for more technology use in the classroom, bringing the classroom outside of the school, giving students more autonomy and moving away from strict student teacher dynamics. This article provides insight and support for many of those ideas.

5. Tan, O., Low, E. L., Tay, E. G., & Yan, Y. K. (2021). Singapore math and science education innovation: Beyond PISA. Springer Singapore Pte. Limited.

Singapore is another country (along with Finland) that has received international attention for their success on global testing standards and their educational practices. I will be looking at their educational systems to see how they impact student interest and achievement. Specifically, I will be looking at their foundational curricular principals and inquiring about whether these help students to have genuine interest in what they are learning.

6. Elias, M. J. (2016, January 14). How and why Intrinsic Motivation Works. Edutopia. Retrieved December 2, 2021, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/how-and-why-intrinsic-motivation-works-maurice-elias.

This article provides more insight into intrinsic motivation and how it can be harnessed in the classroom. If students are to be interested in a subject, they must be motivated to do it! My inquiry project will incorporate their suggestions of controlling versus supportive instruction and giving constructive feedback.

7. Rubach, C., & Bonanati, S. (2021). The impact of parents' home‐ and school‐based involvement on adolescents' intrinsic motivation and anxiety in math. Psychology in the Schools, https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.22577

This article looks at intrinsic motivation from a different perspective, specifically home/parent involvement in student education. Often student interests come from influential people in their lives such as parents, so it is important to consider the role this might play in my inquiry. If we our goal as educators is to foster genuine interest in students, we must use all options and resources available to us and the parent involvement this article advocates for is one of those resources.

8. Besser, L. (2020, January 31). Why Finland's schools outperform most others ... - youtube. Retrieved December 2, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xCe2m0kiSg.

This video is an interesting news piece done by ABC news in Australia that looks at differences in the finish education system and provides much more visual and intuitive reasons for why their system is so effective. I will be using this source as an audio-visual aid during my presentation to illustrate the Finnish education system for my peers because it gives the perspective of students, parents, teachers, and administration.

Nov. 18 Exit Slip

I think for my inquiry project and connecting it to the real world, I will be having informal conversations with my SAs and even some of the students during my Tuesday visits. The information I will be able to gather from students will be limited because it often takes time to build rapport and have genuine conversations with anyone. Furthermore, I will be talking to future CFE placement options (I know them personally) about their thoughts on math pedagogy and what it means in their areas.

I have focused my project topic to thinking about personal interest and how curriculum and exploration can play a role in building genuine personal interest. So essentially, I am looking at genuine personal interest and how that can be used to the advantage of the math classroom.

Exit Slip Oct. 21

I enjoyed our discussion in this class about gender and diversity in mathematics, it was so interesting. It is an important discussion to have as we try to create a space that is welcoming for anyone who is interested, passionate or curious about math. The videos that we watched in class were great introductions to diverse people who have been highly successful in the math world and can act as models for those who feel they may not have been represented in math up until recently. Although there was some debate about the video with the woman mathematician, I liked the video because I thought it (much like the video about the mathematician of Indian descent) portrayed her as a normal person not some kind of cave dweller with no friends. This is an important thing to do because there are negative stereotypes about people that like math and the type of person you need to be to do or appreciate math.