Eileen Cloutier wrote:
When I asked my first grade students- most of them told me it was something they do in school. They continued to explain how they need to use different strategies to prove their thinking. Another comment was it was all about breaking apart numbers and playing with shapes. When I asked my second grade students, their reply differed. Some of them told me that math was something they had to learn for when they grow up. They also said they needed to solve really hard problems with partners and the teacher won't even help:) them get the answer. Others told me it was about building problems and proving they were doing the right thing. Their responses were quite thought out. Although, I hope in the near future math is seen differently. I believe if I asked the kids this question 2 years ago, they would have responded tat math is something that is done in a workbook. We are making progress, but I can't wait for the kids to envelope the mathematical world.
Wow! I loved the responses of your students, Eileen -- especially the first graders. I have not had a chance to ask my 9th graders this question, yet, and I do fear what their response will be.
Mathematics is a tricky subject -- I agree with all Jo Boaler had to say about what mathematics is, except that I think she missed one HUGE part of mathematics. Mathematics is also a service subject. What I mean by this is that there is an expectation that students have learned specific techniques and processes in mathematics classrooms that they can and will use in other areas -- in science, for example, or even more simply in life such as figuring the tip on a bill at a restaurant. In teaching mathematics, we are competing with the need to have students be "able to do" in the service of other subjects, while also meeting our own desire to build mathematical reasoners and problem solvers. Granted, these two ideas are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but the math education system is most attacked when students are not able to do the things that everyone else expects them to do. Perhaps this parallels the debate in English between analyzing fiction versus writing/reading non-fiction. Though things like poetry and literature can be argued as valuable from a cultural perspective -- I have rarely heard one argue the same for mathematical thought and reasoning.
Hoping to ask my students the "What is Math?" question soon -- just have to find time in the over-packed high school curriculum :D .