Why Learn Mathematics?
The Common Core outlines eight Mathematical Practices:
Mathematics is uniquely suited in exercising these thinking and communication skills. These skills are highly sought after in a diverse range of careers, and have the added benefit of making you smarter and more resilient. Moreover, in an increasingly technological and interconnected world, it is more important than ever to foster a well-educated citizenry.
- Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
- Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
- Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
- Design mathematical models to describe the world.
- Use appropriate tools strategically.
- Attend to precision.
- Look for and make use of structure.
- Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
Mathematics is uniquely suited in exercising these thinking and communication skills. These skills are highly sought after in a diverse range of careers, and have the added benefit of making you smarter and more resilient. Moreover, in an increasingly technological and interconnected world, it is more important than ever to foster a well-educated citizenry.
As students in my class, you can help each other grow your brains, and contribute to a better classroom environment. This is not just for your own good or to make my job easier. The world needs you to contribute as much as you can to your family and community. I'm going to retire one day into a world that you control. I have a vested interest in preparing you for that challenge.
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Growth MindsetThe research, in a nutshell, says that the brain grows with concerted effort and collaborative communication. The brain is a flexible structure that adapts, makes connections, and grows with concerted effort. An example of this lies in London cab drivers, who study for years for a test called “The Knowledge.” These cab drivers have larger than normal hippocampi (hippocampus being the long-term memory and spacial processing center of the brain). What’s more, their hippocampi shrink back to normal after they have retired. This shows that the brain is capable of changing, adapting, growing, and shrinking.
Not only is it true that the brain grows and makes new connections with concerted effort, it is also a useful belief. Students who believe that they can grow their brain do better than those who think their math ability is fixed. They have more perseverance, have deeper understandings, and can transfer their habits of thinking to many areas of their lives. This belief is called a “Growth Mindset.” |
The PISA Study
Jo Boaler, math education researcher at Stanford, describes the role of making mathematical connections and growth mindset in the PISA study of global mathematics achievement.