New Insights and Their Implications

Throughout elementary and up to my college career, I have always enjoyed math and have been pretty successful. I think very linearly, so math has always seemed to fit into my ways of thinking and understanding. All throughout my schooling, I was pretty successful at memorizing formulas and knowing the procedure for solving them. On the contrary, my husband is a person who does not enjoy math and has struggled with math his entire life. He has worked very hard to try to understand math, but has never been able to understand why he struggles with math so much. Throughout our college career, I would always try to help him with his math homework, and he would ask me questions such as "Why do you use this formula?" or "Why does it have to be done this way?". I was never able to answer his questions because I simply didn't know the answer. All I could do was show him the procedure for solving the equations or problems, and all I could say was, "This is just how you do it. I don't know why it is this way, but you just do it." After talking about and beginning to understand reformed mathematical teaching, I feel like I was "ripped off" throughout my education. Had I been taught this new reformed math, I would have been able to answer why you use specific formulas or why you solve things the way you do. I may know how to solve a math equation, but in many cases, I have no clue as to WHY you use certain formulas or WHY you solve certain problems certain ways. I truly believe that had my husband been taught with this reformed style teaching of mathematics, he would have never struggled with math. His brain is one that functions solely off of meaningful connections. If he doesn't understand how a concept is related or why it is important (for example a formula taught in isolation), he doesn't grasp it. His brain NEEDS coherency, meaningful connections, and meaningful context to build understanding and knowledge. Having realized this, I am super excited about figuring out how to effectively teach this reformed mathematics to my future students. I have come to realize that reform taught mathematics can have far reaching affects for students. Although, I don't feel anywhere near proficient at this style of teaching yet, I believe that if I can master this method of reformed mathematical teaching, my students will not struggle with math because they will understand how all mathematical concepts are linked together and they will have built their own knowledge in a meaningful context. Throughout this semester, I look forward to learning how to execute this style of teaching and learning how to develop lessons that make meaningful connections for students.