Philosophy Of Education: Emphasis on Mathematics

[Pianoblacks]

Matthew, you are absolutely right.

[Gnorker727]

Rock on, Matthew. Rock on.

[msrtoday]

Did you have to do this for teachers' certification or registration?

You are saying what is taught today in every teacher preparation course in existence in the English speaking world. Reassuring that some are listening.

[caitlingreenlee]

I am Secondary Ed. for English, and I found your philosophy inspiring, and relevant to even my content area. Just so you know. :)

[uetzel]

theoretical mathematics vs. applied mathemathics.....

btw i use the train atleast twice a day.....

[KulKid001]

Gud Philosophy especially about believing in the students. Now can you make a video about the beurocracy in education?

[peanut18544]

Train or bike, it won't make a difference. Don't presume that kids are that dumb man. Peeps definitely ride trains btw. To motivate students to learn, i believe they must appreciate the purpose of it. School allows a person to move forward in life. THAT is why its important to struggle in school learning material that may not be relevant to anything in your life. Right now im an econ major and I get it that im probably not gonna use any of the things i learn in class, but thats not the point.

[mixali]

nice video mate. i'm just leaving uni with a degree in philosophy, going on to study logic and philo of maths at masters level and i agree 100%. the teachers who were best (incidentally teaching the hardest, 'least relevant' subjects were SO knowledgeable, SO enthusiastic, and made it SO fun - they took the subject seriously but not themselves; jokes abounded about people in the room and examples were so silly they were vivid - but it worked, we got it and we remembered it. and no BS either.

[meric2]

...What if Billy doesn't have a bike?

[Slimdawgc]

In Canada, mathematics education students don't even have to take fourth year math classes. They only have to take two three year math classes, and most take easy classes like "history of math" and "set theory". I'm an economics student, and I already know more than most high school math teachers, having taken honors calculus classes, abstract algebra classes, and linear algebra.

[Sharpsight51]

Please clarify which math programs you're referring to.

At UWaterloo (ON), you cannot graduate with a Bachelor of Mathematics without considerable exposure to difficult upper year mathematics. It's impossible to "coast" your way through easy math classes--I have friends who took UW's history of math course and it's a 4th year course of great difficulty.

High Shool Teacher's in Ontario need to take 5 units (10 4-month courses) to qualify for math as a teachable. That's a lot of math imo

[Slimdawgc]

I am aware that UWaterloo is heavily math-oriented. However, I'm talking not about a Bachelor of Math, but a Bachelor of Education.

[Sharpsight51]

afaik, the BEd isn't where you're supposed to learn math. You take two courses in how to teach math, but to have math as a teachable, you need to have taken 10 courses of University level mathematics (with at most 2 courses in stats).

That would probably mean you'd need at least a couple courses in calculus, and some exposure to classical algebra, linear algebra, and hopefully some other areas of mathematics.

Seems like an OK system to me, but I haven't gone through it yet, so I may be wrong.

[Slimdawgc]

Well, you're right on some accounts, but let me try and put it into perspective for you: I have met high school teachers, and I have met education students, who don't know what a delta-epsilon proof is or how to do one. It is deeply disturbing that, in my experience anyway, so many math ed people don't know basic analysis.

[Sharpsight51]

That's shocking.

Maybe there should be some sort of basic "math literacy" test for teachers applying to BEd programs. (For those applying to teach mathematics, that is.)

That teachers can't do epsilon delta proofs is a bit less surprising, especially if they've been out of school for a while... but fresh grads with 10 courses in math I would have thought would still remember how to do common university math problems.

[NInjai555]

As much as I hate math, it is a very important subject. But that doesn't mean I have to like it.

[Carolina8]

ur the best..!

[aislingwoods]

As a math teacher, I know that all those points are valid and true! Making it fun (with your personality) and relevant is everything, for students who don't see the point of math.

[paradigm4]

Certainly agree with making math relevant, however switching a few words in those terrible examples they give won't make the examples suddenly interesting. Also, I never think of a teacher as an authority on a subject; essentially, that spot is now reserved for the collective knowledge repository (aka the internet).

[danouk]

Your point on involving kids in the examples is stupid, I don't see how a bike or a train would make any difference to a child's attentiveness.

[wkta1]

and that's precisely why most of kids hate their math teacher as well as they hate math. Because they have no idea of "what is pedagogy", just like you

[jellocube27]

that's not a very constructive comment. why not provide some insight, instead of straight criticism?

[musambajama]

Very well said.