New Insights and Their Implications

I feel as though over the course of this class I have really come to have a new understanding of mathematics reform. I see where it is coming from (TIMSS studies)and why it is necessary to change how we are educating our students. The only issues I have with the new reform are that I think it is somewhat out of context to compare ourselves to Japan and China because we allow our children to be children, we give them summers and we want them to learn, but our cultures are very different and we cannot expect to "catch up" with those countries just by changing our methods. I think it is worthwhile to reform our mathematics I just hope that it is not expected for us to be even with Japan or China in the very near future. I will be interested to see the results of the latest tests. The other insight and implication I have is that I am training to become a special education teacher. Yes, I will be certified to be an elementary educator as well, but I want to be a SPED teacher. What I am learning in my SPED classes is that inquiry learning is not effective for students who are struggling. Direct instruction has been found to be the most effective for struggling learners. So my question is, will I be prepared to teach the traditional way if that is necessary for my students? I think I will, and I think it has been worthwhile to learn the different methods of teaching. Those are the implications and insights that I have been dealing with lately.