Rudbeckia Hirta said...
I think your other anecdotes are much more telling and well-reflect what I see in my classes of pre-service elementary teachers: their content knowledge and ability for abstract thought is so weak that the pedagogical approach becomes irrelevant. In my non-teacher course I give review sheets like the ones you mention in another post -- without them everyone would fail, and I would get yelled at (failure rate is unofficially capped at 30% for my course). When they become teachers, they can't effectively teach constructively, as they do not possess the knowledge themselves. Before we spend too much time arguing about pedagogy, we really need to take a hard look at content and think about doing something about how little many teachers know (especially at the K-8 level).
I urge anybody who thinks that these comments are unduly harsh to look at the following books:
A Problem Solving Approach to Mathematics for Elementary School Teachers, Eighth Edition
Mathematics for Elementary School Teachers, Third Edition
Mathematical Reasoning for Elementary Teachers, Third Edition
Spend just a few minutes browsing through the pages of these books, and you will be genuinely shocked. Why are they teaching elementary school mathematics to people who are in college? Didn’t these people go to elementary school? Shouldn’t they have learned this stuff back then?
Seriously, if you have the opportunity to go to the bookstore of your local university, do so. Browse around; look at the textbooks in what passes for “higher” education in our teacher college classrooms. It’s scary!
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One reviewer of "Mathematical Reasoning for Elementary Teachers" has this to say:
"I would recommend this book for anyone intrested in teaching younger children mathmatics. It starts on the basics such as addition and goes through geometery. It is very helpful in reminding adults how to do some basic math that we might have forgot. I used this book two semesters in a row at CSU Stainislaus. There isn't a single Liberal Study major who hasn't used this book. This book has "Highlights from History" that tell you about the people that created the different math ideas. "Hands On" gives you fun math activities to try and pieces from the NCTM standards and many more helpful articles throughout the chapters. This book makes teaching math intresting for you and the children you teach it to."
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