Teaching the Math Teachers

When I researched math programs for our home education curriculum, I learned a lot about the importance of teaching "why" we do things in the early years of math education. This isn't always key to doing well on the high school level standardized tests (although it certainly helps), but it IS key to understanding higher math, and especially college level math. Learning to simply follow and repeat an algorithm and memorizing facts are not enough preparation for higher math. Understanding why and how math works the way it does are just as important.

That said, I find the subject matter of MSNBC's June 26th article entitled Study: Teachers don't learn enough about math very interesting. The article contends that the majority of college programs that turn out American teachers are very weak in math education. It is no surprise, then, that the outcomes for elementary students (when the foundation of math skills is being laid) have been less than ideal. It is also no surprise that American math test scores are higher in the lower grades (when algorithms can be relied upon) than in the upper grades (when the effect of a lack of deeper foundational understanding becomes more readily apparent).

I believe that the focus on reforming American schools will never have a chance at success unless we also reform our teacher's colleges. Otherwise, our teachers will still be relying on the foundational math education they received in those same elementary schools in need of reform, newly armed with college training in only the newest methodologies for instruction (which is, of course, limited to what they know) and classroom management.

(Incidentally, so far we have chosen Singapore Math for our elementary aged kids, based on recommendations we read from college professors, the focus on mental math, the presentation of several ways to solve a problem, the fact that overreliance on algorithms is not possible to solve the wide variety of problems, and the actual recorded success of the program. We also supplement with Miquon Math from about halfway through Kindergarten to about halfway through 3rd grade. The combination of the two programs really seems to make "lightbulbs" go on in little heads!)