Sunday, April 12, 2015

Teaching Math in the 21st Century

Barry Garelick has written a book with that title, an excerpt of which can be downloaded here.  Here's the opening:
This book takes place in the 21st century and a school district in California. Like many
districts in the U.S., it is married to the groupthink-inspired conception known as 21st
century learning. Those who have fallen under the spell of this idea believe that
today’s students live in the digital world where any information can be Googled, and
facts are not as important as “learning how to learn”. It is a brave new world in which
students must collaborate, be creative, work as a team and construct new meanings.
Teaching subjects such as math, history, science and English (now called Language
Arts) as separate disciplines is an outmoded concept; they should be blended into an
integrated discipline.

In the world of 21st century learning, one prevailing belief is that procedures don’t
stick; they are forgotten. Habits, however, are forever. Students are to be taught
“learning skills”, “critical and higher order thinking” and “habits of mind” in order to
prepare for jobs that have not yet been created.

In short, it is an educational orientation that I and others like me 1) do not believe in
and 2) find ourselves immersed in. It was the underlying belief system in which I had
to work during two long-term sub assignments which are the subject of the book you
are about to read.
I think I'm going to like this book.

Update, 4/18/15:  The Amazon link.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the mention of my book. I don't think the link will work for most, but people can read other excerpts here.

CyberChalky said...

Has the excerpt been withdrawn? The link doesn't work and a search for author and title returns no results of relevance.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ellen K said...

I will look up the books because my district is in the (death)throes of this ideology. You might want to read my latest rant. Or maybe not. Frankly it's just too damned maddening.

Anonymous said...

Ellen K: What district do you teach in? Where is your blog?