Weekly Report & Reflection Week #2

In this post I will be looking at opinions of mathematics.  In my own experience I have found that the general opinion of mathematics of most people is quite negative. This is probably a reflection of a few things.  That is, social bias (for example, "girls aren't good at math!"), engaging instruction (for example, "this work is boring, it's just drills and busy work!"), and problems of relevance (for example, "what is the point of this? I'm never going to use this in real life!"). Undoubtedly there are various other reasons for why people have a negative view of mathematics, but these three reasons seem to me to be the most prevalent amongst people.

Raphael, The School of Athens, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Euclid.jpg

My own personal feeling about mathematics is that it can be difficult and vexing, but also fascinating and enlightening. I'm personally more interested in mathematical theory than I am in its practical applications. I realize that theory and practice go hand in hand, yet for some reason unknown to me I simply find the theory aspect much more interesting. Here is a link to a documentary by the BBC called "Dangerous Knowledge" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCszejfzb_U I think this is an excellent example of why mathematical theory is so interesting.  

What is required for teaching mathematics is posted on The Ontario Mathematics Curriculum, link provided here:  https://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/math18curr.pdf however, while this curriculum is necessary, reading it is rather painful and is good reflection of why students find mathematics so dry and onerous. In my opinion, to be a good teacher of mathematics an instructor must at all costs prevent mathematics from becoming boring and uninteresting. Instead a teacher much show the relevance to the students to what they are learning and try to engage them on levels that are more interactive and not simply have students do drills with pencil and paper.

Returning to The Ontario Mathematics Curriculum, I believe that I still have quite a bit of work to d in relation to learning some of its curriculum. In particular I do not have much experience with data management. So this will be one area of study I will have to explore more closely. However, I am interested in fostering a variety of learning which the curriculum alludes to, and which has been a primary focus of many of our educational classes so far.