Blog 2 - Mathematics

     Being a current concurrent education student with a teachable in mathematics, I am always interested and willing to learn about mathematics education. In our fourth week of my higher level thinking in mathematics and science course, we read about mathematics and had in in-class discussion about mathematical perspectives. We watched a video about how 25 divided by 5 equals 14. While watching the video, I thought it was obvious that 25/5 could not possibly equal 14. Although the video itself “proves” in a sense how it can equal 14 using long division. Even if the mathematics is flawed, in a sense, it is still proven. This leads us to question if the procedural understanding in mathematics can become limiting. I discussed with my peers during break about how procedural mathematics may be limiting to students. Not long after, professor Mawuli asked students to come up and solve a simple algebraic equation of solving for “x” where I quickly raised my hand and was not chosen, which allowed for a learning opportunity instead. The first volunteer miscalculated one part of the question and was corrected by other classmates, who came up and provided a few different ways to solve the equation. I found this activity fascinating, thinking of how each student had a different manner of procedural mathematics. I connected my own procedural knowledge with one of the examples and realized that my method on how to computed was not singular.

Reflecting on this, I have to realize all the procedural understanding my students will have when entering my classroom. As a student, I was taught one proven method, such as the people in the video about 25/5=14, who followed the same steps as I was taught but got the wrong answer. Meaning some of my students may come into my classroom with the proper procedural knowledge but an improper understanding of how the steps are done, for example. Also, students may mix up certain computations, such as my classmate, or I may receive students with different procedural ideas, such as my other classmates, when solving the algebraic equation. I would like to reflect further on that experience and understand how I will have to adapt to my students prior, current and future procedural understanding. Once they enter my classroom, they will have prior understanding or rather no understanding of a subjects such as algebra and, I need to ask them questions and do an activity such as the one we did in class to overview my students understanding of procedural mathematics. I want to allow my students to use their own methods of procedural mathematics and even teach their peers if it can support them rather than limit them to only one method. I feel as though this class opened my eyes as a future educator on the possibilities of my future students and how I can support and understand them and their procedural understanding of mathematics. I believe that giving them a support activity and then assessing their understanding is incredibly important as an educator and this experience has allowed me to reflect on this and grow my understanding on how to evaluate my student's variety of procedural mathematics.