[ExI] math education

[William Flynn Wallace]

What I am looking for is that readiness of the child's mind for different
types of math.  Spike, what did your son think about moving from arithmetic
to algebra, assuming that he did that?

Educators talk about 'reading readiness'.  Is there a 'math readiness'?

A problem in psychology is that we have no really valid aptitude tests;
that is, a test that tells us when a person is ready to start achieving
something.  So we have achievement tests that are valid, but no way to tell
if someone is ready to achieve something without just starting them on it
and seeing.  The best we can do is IQ tests.

What needs to be done is to start some kids on arithmetic, some on algebra
(any other suggestions?) and then switch them to the other after learning
the first one to some degree.  That way we could judge which transition is
harder.  Lots of other variables you could throw in here, such as age
started math; results of achievement tests in other subjects, and so on.

Most of you have no more expertise in math education than I do, but maybe
remember how hard some new kind of math was for you.

More later.

bill w

On Thu, Dec 8, 2016 at 9:35 AM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:

>
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> BillW,
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> I need to scamper, but I want to leave you with a thought for when we can
> discuss it in the near future.
>
>
>
> Picture in your mind what you asked below.  Picture how you were taught
> math, successfully or otherwise.  Were there any computers in the picture?
> Were there any choices in how to do the curriculum?  Were there an array of
> books from which to choose?  Or was there one young lady up front drawing
> on a chalkboard with about 25 to 30 kids out there, all from very different
> backgrounds and ability levels?
>
>
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> I suspect one teacher, many students, no choices of curriculum.  Work thru
> the book, ja?
>
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> OK now, my highly esteemed psychologist friend who understands things:
> what if a class of 30 children had 30 choices of how to learn math, and
> what if the students were to experiment and find what works best for them?
> What if the curriculum was completely adaptive, and completely open-ended.
> Oooohhh wouldn’t that be cool?  Wouldn’t that be a dream?
>
>
>
> We are standing on the threshold of a dream.  Some students have crossed
> it already.  My son finished Khan Academy’s differential calculus course
> yesterday.  He and I were racing on the exercises.  He was winning about a
> third of the matches and his accuracy was comparable to mine.  He is not
> yet halfway through fifth grade.
>
>
>
> Meanwhile, the standard curriculum is available to the students on their
> classroom computers (they each have one.)  My son hacked into the 12th
> grade standard curriculum for math, took several of the tests, got perfect
> scores on all of them and found them to be child’s play.  Ignoring for the
> moment that this would be perhaps appropriate considering that he is in the
> literal sense of the word a “child” the entire exercise tells us something
> important.
>
>
>
> I don’t know what to do.  Open and welcome any and all suggestions or
> counsel.
>
>
>
> More later, gotta scoot.
>
>
>
> spike
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> *From:* extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] *On
> Behalf Of *William Flynn Wallace
> *Sent:* Thursday, December 08, 2016 7:22 AM
> *To:* ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> *Subject:* [ExI] math education
>
>
>
> About which I know nothing.  But - I read awhile back that the New Math
> was a disaster.  That was long ago, but are they still teaching that?
>
>
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> Then I read that kids should not start with arithmetic, way too hard, but
> with algebra - or something along that line.
>
>
>
> Now you may know math but little about math education, but I am asking
> anyway - just how should math be taught, and when?
>
>
>
> When I went to college, psychology could not be taken by a freshman.  As a
> psychologist I can tell you that there are some parts of it that can be
> taught to kids in kindergarten - and should be.  Maybe math shares some of
> that thinking.
>
>
>
> bill w
>
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