[IAEP] 70 minute interview with Bryan Berry on XO deployment inNepal

[Kathy Pusztavari]

"How can this principle of customizable math be applied to framework
development?"

By showing exemplars that change as you proceed through your teaching
sequence.

See 

"Designing Effective Mathematical Instruction: A Direct Instruction
Approach" by Stein, Kinder, Silbert & Carnine

"Theory of Instruction: Principles and Applications" by Engelmann and
Carnine

-----Original Message-----
From: iaep-bounces at lists.sugarlabs.org
[mailto:iaep-bounces at lists.sugarlabs.org] On Behalf Of Maria Droujkova
Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 6:53 AM
To: Bill Kerr
Cc: Bryan Berry; iaep at lists.sugarlabs.org
Subject: Re: [IAEP] 70 minute interview with Bryan Berry on XO deployment
inNepal

> 10) Open Source software critical to high quality education - 
> education has to be very customised, to the kids, the teacher, the 
> environment and the country - not something you can design in New York 
> city and will fit another country
>
> Liping Ma argues (admittedly from small sample sizes) that many 
> teachers teach elementary maths differently and *better* in China than 
> in the USA 
> http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2009/03/long-multiplication.html
>

I think education has to be customizABLE, not customized. Every practitioner
of math has to be able to make their own version of it, based on the
previous traditions - from rephrasing definitions in your own words to
finding math in your everyday life, from choosing representation that best
suites your data and your audience to applying general principles to
particular examples. Strong teachers (including those Ma studied) are able
to use timeless, universal ideas and strategies in ways that are meaningful
to themselves and their particular students. For example, a large part of
what Chinese, Japanese or Eastern European teachers do themselves and teach
their students is creation of meaningful example spaces for each
mathematical idea and concept, including a variety of applications,
representations, connections, contexts, examples and counterexamples.
One of the most well-known part of Ma's research of these differences
included teachers searching for examples of fraction operations.

In a telling cultural experiment reported by Sfard from Israel, a chapter
quiz asked students to prove a geometry theorem from the chapter. However,
the theorem was rephrased compared to the chapter, and letters labeling
geometric figures were changed around. Recent immigrants from Eastern Europe
have not noticed the change, because it is very normal for them - a sort of
customization of material they are taught to do for themselves. On the other
hand, many kids who grew up in Israel had difficulties recognizing or
proving the theorem in its "new" form.

How can this principle of customizable math be applied to framework
development?


--
Cheers,
MariaD

Make math your own, to make your own math.

http://www.naturalmath.com social math site http://www.phenixsolutions.com
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