New Insights and Their Implications

When preparing for our LPU, I struggled to break away from the traditional approaches of teaching. Because this approach is all I have ever known, I found it hard to switch my thinking towards teaching through problem solving. This new approach of teaching takes time and practice, which has become widely apparent after our LPU presentation and after watching other groups present their material. It becomes hard to teach material to others that you are uncomfortable with yourself. After presenting our material, I realized just how important problem based approaches are. Instead of providing the steps or formulas for solving problems, it is important to provide students with the skills to find their own approaches to solving problems. Although I think this approach of teaching is important, I also think that it is important to introduce small portions of this approach with traditional approaches so students do not get overwhelmed. This approach takes time and if students are introduced to it all at one, they may get discouraged and not put forth necessary effort because of that discouragement. Once students feel more comfortable with this approach, I think they will have a better outlook on math. This is exactly what has happened to me over the last couple of weeks. I have always
struggled to understand math and this course is no exception. However, after preparing for our LPU and learning different approaches towards solving problems, I am now starting to make sense of everything. I am starting to grasp what is being taught and I feel more positive about teaching with this approach.