Math Education: A University View

"Because algebra is about memorizing facts that are not connected to meaning" -- more BS hat-talking, & pure nonsense, as anybody who was good at algebra would know.

Algebra's about a mind-set and tools for approaches to solving problems. One learns basic algorithms, & things take off from there. '2345 probably failed at maths. so his/her/its holding forth so, spewing gibberish, is tragicomic.

Slide rules, log tables & algebra/calculus sent men to the moon; EM is good for basket weaving.

Algebra involves mathematical reasoning, not memorizing a unch of facts. EM can engage students in mathematical reasoning, if properly used. However, most teachers don't implement it properly, as demonstrated by research. Don't worry, we continue to teach math just as we did with slide rules, very poorly without connection to meaning of involving reasoning. See the TIMSS video study for more information on this.

Do a search for "the good old days that never were" to see that US instruction in mathematics has never been helpful for developing student understanding of mathematics. I love your reminiscing of mathematical understanding, though no evidence exists that students actually learned mathematics better at that time. It is time to return to reality rather that live in dreamland.

"EM has been demonstrated to help students who are struggling in math." Maybe, but EM turns otherwise potentially bright, motivated NORMAL students into drooling morons... mathematically speaking. Typical progressivism: drag everybody down to the lowest level instead of letting the brightest excel.

Typical misleading statement spoken in ignorance. It is traditional math that turns bright students with strong reasoning into bumbling mathematical idiots who don't trust their own reasoning. Google "parrot math" to see what traditional math does. I see it everyday with even our brightest students. They don't know why they follow the rules they do, they just do! This, to them, is math.

sleeper2345 is talking thru his/her/its hat. The Seattle schools have adopted EM; consequently, local for-fee math tutors have never had brisker business, duh.

My niece is sorely challenged by college math remedials, courtesy of the mushy Seattle math taught her. I've seen first-hand the train wreck that EM and similar makes of its victims' ability to clearly solve problems and prepare kids for higher learning. EM could not be better designed to destroy the math talent of those subjected to it.

I'll add that I spoke recently to a Seattle teacher friend, who she told me how the hated EM is *really* taught: after every EM unit, the teachers revert to 3 days' worth of traditional algorithms and math-fact teaching, once the SPS proctor-goons have left the premises.

I suggest that the reason SPS scores have not totally collapsed is due to the continued use of the methods that sleeper2345 sneers at -- and the common hiring of Kumon et al by desperate parents anxious for their kids' futures.

So the curriculum has not and will not ever be implemented as intended. We continue to drill students on rules they don't understand.

These curricula have only been around for a short period of time. When did she start EM? Were the teachers properly prepared? So you're generalizing from an N of 1 to the population? Sounds like you have some difficulty wiht statistical reasoning.

i am not being prejudiced, nor am i that type of a person, so don't take this the wrong way, it is my experience. i used to cheat on my math tests all through school or i never would have graduated. i am nearly 60 years old now, for some reason the oriental students were always every one of them, excellent in math. why? is it the style of way they were taught the math from the begiinning? obviously, they were learning the right way, it isn't an ethnic thing, but what is the method they used?