US Math Education to Become Less Racist, More Inclusive

[Radiatia]

Wow. Just when you thought the US education system couldn't get any worse, someone comes up with a way...

[American Salvation]

Wow. Just when you thought the US education system couldn't get any worse, someone comes up with a way...

It's awful. I don't know how math was racist to begin with.

It's easy. I passed aced every single test, and i neither studied or did homework once.

[Luminesa]

Oh of course, and again, music probably works better for some math topics than others. Lots of practice is necessary, and I think another good way to teach is by asking the child what they thought when they got to an answer. Even if they get it wrong, letting them know they can fix their mistakes through continued practice definitely also helps to build self-esteem.

I think that's good pedagogy to ask kiddos for their thought process when solving a problem and to encourage them to try again by giving them positive feedback, but my question in that case is : wouldn't dancing and singing make it harder to do that by "overwhelming" them with stimuli?

If we go off Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences, one form of intelligence is musical. This means a person shows their intelligence through music. However, people have-hence the name-multiple intelligences, and playing to those strengths helps different children learn. This is why many schools have centers. Some children can learn best by interpersonal work (finding answers with a friend), and other children use visual-spatial intelligence (drawing arrays, making tessellations, computer games, etc).

Music works best in an early childhood setting, and activates a lot of foundational skills in children. Not only do they learn fine-motor and gross-motor skills, but they of course learn how to keep rhythm. Rhythm ties into math, even if small children don’t realize it yet. It can work into word problems for older children as well. Let’s try an example with time signatures and music:

Honestly, I fully agree with you in that regard for the smaller kids but I see two issues that I think cause a real problem. First off, how can one actually detect which method is best for a kid to learn? By trying them all and taking note for each kids? By asking the children themselves? I feel like it might make it harder for children in average to learn even if it might benefit some kids in particular. For that problem, I feel like there is a very easy and simple solution : smaller classroom and more teachers. That's one I doubt peoples in charge of budget are keen on accepting sadly.

Secondly, if a kid only know how to learn by song and dances, then how are they going to do once they reach middle or high school, or even university? Because they will be asked to learn a lot more, a lot harder and all of that only using "conventional" methods.
My preparatory classes were two years of over 40h a week of classes for intensive STEM learning with bi to tri weekly oral exams and written exams every weekend.
If I had not been prepared since a kid to learn by heart and taught a lot of rote learning methods, then I simply couldn't have dealt with it.

“Soundgarden’s ‘Fell on Black Days’ is played at a time signature of 6/4. Edith Pair’s ‘La vie en rose’ is played in a time signature of 4/4. Metallica’s ‘Nothing Else Matters’ is written in a time signature of 6/8. The Allman Brothers’ ‘Whipping Post’ is written in a time signature of 12/8. Order these time signature fractions from greatest to least.”

This would roughly follow some fifth-grade Common Core Standards for ordering fractions and using fractions with unlike denominators. It would also integrate music properly-kids can listen to all of these songs in a classroom, and would allow the teacher to integrate National Art Standards for understanding music.

I remember apples and oranges used instead of songs and I suppose that can make sense. I'm ready to believe you that it helps kids learn better but I can't help but feel that adding songs to listen to rather than just objects to give kids a concrete understanding of the numbers they're dealing with is a bit of an "extraneous step".

For the first bit: as I explained, you probably wouldn’t do the song and dance and then the explain your thoughts at the same time. One would be during the facilitative phase (teacher is teaching, invites students to learn the concept), and the other would be during the assessment phase (we do the work, student gives answer, teacher asks why they got the answer).

When I’m not sleepy I’ll have to look-up a study or two about how music helps with math education. I had one on tap for PE helping children to do better on standardized testing, but I don’t remember where I put it.

Teachers tend to use multiple methods due to the diversity of their classrooms. That said, smaller classrooms + more teachers is absolutely a need. It is a lot easier to pin students’ learning styles and intelligences when you have a small class and not…20-30 kids at a time. However, a teacher doesn’t have to use music and song all the time, it can be for certain topics to aid in facilitative or even in the constructive process (having a child write a song to remember their time tables). On the other end, however, there is definitely something to be said that many education programs do not take the time to demonstrate how to integrate the arts into lessons, so teachers have an idea that it’s a waste of time and resources and move on. Taking the time to integrate the arts, however, significantly improves student performance.

I think that’s the big thing is that the way you were educated to perform for intense exams is very different from how the US does their education (minus the horrors of standardized testing). A lot of countries seem to put emphasis on rote learning for really difficult exams. Nobody is suggesting, as far as I know, that we should get rid of rote learning. Many kids learn well that way, and given your career path it has certainly helped you long. However, while having kids rote-learn formulas to the point of automaticity is great, having them also engage with math in creative ways will improve their overall experience of school as well.

Again, there are studies for these things, but it is 6 AM and I don’t feel like trying to get into my college library to find sources.

[-Astoria-]

Wow. Just when you thought the US education system couldn't get any worse, someone comes up with a way...

Have you read the accompanying article?

[Dakini]

Well, that last comment just shows that you're someone who doesn't know much at all about statistics.

Bruh, that comment just shows that you've only ever fapped to statistics and never studied nor used them.

The odds against an entire class being "lucky" on a standardized test are overwhelming.

Nobody said that this is how high school or university students should learn. If you knew anything about mathematics and education, you would know that one of the big problems in teaching mathematics at the primary school level is that children are (sometimes subtly) encouraged to find it difficult or boring by teachers who often find mathematics difficult and boring. This results in a lot of students who stop taking mathematics classes as soon as they're able to do so.

If you can encourage young children to enjoy learning mathematics, then they are more likely to pursue the subject longer and with more enthusiasm.

If you fuck up the way students learn mathematics when they're young, then they will have an extremely hard time to recover from it and will fail it once they reach actual maths that is taught in middle school and high schools because they will never have been prepared for it.

People have been fucking up the way students learn mathematics when they're young. That's why a lot of children are already dropping maths classes.

[Hukhalia]

frankly the fact that people in this thread are immediately having a knee-jerk reaction to a promising new initiative in education because conservatives smeared "critical race theory" over it is just disgusting

[American Salvation]

Why do students of one ethnicity need to be taught differently from students of another?

[Dakini]

frankly the fact that people in this thread are immediately having a knee-jerk reaction to a promising new initiative in education because conservatives smeared "critical race theory" over it is just disgusting

ikr? Reactionaries who don't read the article or know anything about pedagogy are going to be reactionaries though.

[Hukhalia]

frankly the fact that people in this thread are immediately having a knee-jerk reaction to a promising new initiative in education because conservatives smeared "critical race theory" over it is just disgusting

ikr? Reactionaries who don't read the article or know anything about pedagogy are going to be reactionaries though.

"hi i have zero knowledge about the intricacies of childcare and education, but i'll save you from the scary blacks so entrust the futures of your children to me"

[American Salvation]

I mean, if we're all exactly the same, and race isn't a thing, this shouldn't be an issue.

[Hukhalia]

I mean, if we're all exactly the same, and race isn't a thing, this shouldn't be an issue.

It is an issue, though. Race is a thing because we have cultivated implicit social biases which serve to further divide and distract-- the issue of race is something which must be addressed by people of all races, as a society, together.

[American Salvation]

I mean, if we're all exactly the same, and race isn't a thing, this shouldn't be an issue.

It is an issue, though. Race is a thing because we have cultivated implicit social biases which serve to further divide and distract-- the issue of race is something which must be addressed by people of all races, as a society, together.

Right

[Kanadorika]

Thank God this didn't exist when i was in school, it sounds like torture. Singing and dancing? No thank you.

[Hispida]

Thank God this didn't exist when i was in school, it sounds like torture. Singing and dancing? No thank you.

i'm mad this doesn't exist right now, and i'm a senior. learning would be so much easier with this...

[Arpasia]

I'm confused as to what the "racist" and "inclusive" parts mean, can someone shed some light for me?

[The Alma Mater]

I'm confused as to what the "racist" and "inclusive" parts mean, can someone shed some light for me?

In the context of the article, it is known that different people respond differently to various teaching methods. Some flourish well with method A, some with method B etc. This is not new knowledge, has in fact been known for decades, but yet quite a few schools to this day insist on using teaching methods known to not "click" with certain population groups; even if those make up the majority of the class. The result is that said groups underperforms and do not reach their full potential.

The teacher from the article proposes an alternative. The result is that her students perform on a far higher level. Many of those students are people of color and/or female.
Some people are upset about that because it disrupts the "only white men are smart" narrative.

In the context of many other articles:
- people claim that mathematics was "whitewashed"; naming formulas and theorems after Europeans even if Asians or Africans had discovered them decades or centuries earlier - and leaving those names out completely. While that could be excused back in the 1500s with a "well, I did not know that fellow on the other side of the planet was working on that as well" - we do know NOW. Yet take no action to correct the whitewashing.
- people claim the actual questions can be racist; for instance by using stereotypes (the Jewish banker, the black thief) or by involving societal context that is not universal.

[Diarcesia]

Why do students of one ethnicity need to be taught differently from students of another?

Not even because the ethnicity is different. Learning styles differ from person to person.

Congrats, we just succumbed to the clickbait title.

[Bear Stearns]

do you consider arabs white or poc

Former. :^)

so arabs have white privilege?

[Diarcesia]

Former. :^)

so arabs have white privilege?

Ah... very interesting question eh? We can have a whole thread dedicated for it.

[GuessTheAltAccount]

So the article makes reference to incorporating racial issues into word problems. How on Earth can we expect anyone to be objective when grading student answers to such questions? In history or the social sciences it was pushing it as it is, but the stakes were lower as they were less relevant to employability. (Possibly because no one trusts them to be objective anyway?) With math it's actually more important. Why compromise the last refuge of objectivity left?

[Diarcesia]

So the article makes reference to incorporating racial issues into word problems. How on Earth can we expect anyone to be objective when grading student answers to such questions? In history or the social sciences it was pushing it as it is, but the stakes were lower as they were less relevant to employability. (Possibly because no one trusts them to be objective anyway?) With math it's actually more important. Why compromise the last refuge of objectivity left?

The answers are still objective. That doesn't change.

[Luminesa]

So the article makes reference to incorporating racial issues into word problems. How on Earth can we expect anyone to be objective when grading student answers to such questions? In history or the social sciences it was pushing it as it is, but the stakes were lower as they were less relevant to employability. (Possibly because no one trusts them to be objective anyway?) With math it's actually more important. Why compromise the last refuge of objectivity left?

Quick answer: Use an answer key.

[GuessTheAltAccount]

So the article makes reference to incorporating racial issues into word problems. How on Earth can we expect anyone to be objective when grading student answers to such questions? In history or the social sciences it was pushing it as it is, but the stakes were lower as they were less relevant to employability. (Possibly because no one trusts them to be objective anyway?) With math it's actually more important. Why compromise the last refuge of objectivity left?

The answers are still objective. That doesn't change.

From XKCD:

In theory, yeah. In practice, no. Anyone rushed to meet marking deadlines is going to have to make a judgment call on how complete an answer looks. How strong is the reasoning? Is there anything internally inconsistent in it, despite arriving at the right answer? There is some degree of basic human judgment on these sorts of things, and you never know where bias will creep in, even by accident.

These judgment calls have to be made in assessing history and the social sciences too, but again, the stakes are lower, because that's not as likely to make or break what job a student gets in the future.

[Diarcesia]

The answers are still objective. That doesn't change.

From XKCD:

In theory, yeah. In practice, no. Anyone rushed to meet marking deadlines is going to have to make a judgment call on how complete an answer looks. How strong is the reasoning? Is there anything internally inconsistent in it, despite arriving at the right answer? There is some degree of basic human judgment on these sorts of things, and you never know where bias will creep in, even by accident.

These judgment calls have to be made in assessing history and the social sciences too, but again, the stakes are lower, because that's not as likely to make or break what job a student gets in the future.

I see a 27 at the end, I mark it as correct.

[Big Jim P]

Why do students of one ethnicity need to be taught differently from students of another?

Racism.