Math Is Fun Forum

bossk171

Member

Registered: 2007-07-16

Posts: 305

Make Math Manageable

http://nhpr.org/taxonomy/term/15001

I heard this on the radio today, I thought it was really good (click the link under the picture, "listen").

Thoughts?

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There are 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary, those who don't, and those who can use induction.

Ricky

Moderator

Registered: 2005-12-04

Posts: 3,791

Re: Make Math Manageable

Mathematics isn't meant for everyone, this I'm almost entirely convinced on.  On the other hand, everyone can do math, there isn't some "natural talent" that makes calculus impossible for anyone.  But it will fight you, and you have to want it.  Mathematics is not for people who want things to be easy, nor is it for those who don't want to understand.  If the motivation isn't there, it just won't happen.

She makes a rather good point about talking about mathematics and getting a creative exercise rather than just teaching methods.  I would however like to know specifically what they talked about, which she doesn't mention.

The problem she doesn't seem to address is time.  We have a lot of mathematics that students have to learn in a finite set of time.  To give them a shot in college, they at least need to get up to precalculus, if not through one year of calculus.  How do you have interesting discussions on mathematics while covering all the required material, that students already complain is presented at a pace that is too fast?  There just isn't time.

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"In the real world, this would be a problem.  But in mathematics, we can just define a place where this problem doesn't exist.  So we'll go ahead and do that now..."