As I keep considering the specifics of my capstone project, one dilemma in particular comes to mind. My product will be aimed towards educators (although I would not be heartbroken if some students stumbled across it as well) and its intended purpose will be to persuade and enable educators to change their classrooms. My action research had a focus towards increasing student performance but that is really just the carrot at the end of the stick. It is the justification for the product and certainly a great result but not the sole purpose. So I need to answer the question, what do I want from my audience? In a word, I want to create change. All of our readings in 701 and the sensemaking readings in 792 are all pointing to the same thing, the American education system contains deeply rooted and fundamental flaws. Looking at an international context, countries with wildly different educational systems from each other consistently outperform American students. This suggests it is not solely the systems in these high performing countries. Both ends of the educational spectrum CAN be successful. Even America’s messy blend of a system tends to maintain a spot in the top 10 countries in middle school math according to TIMSS. http://timssandpirls.bc.edu/timss2015/international-results/ Granted, I believe America should, based on world status, sit higher on that list so there is definitely a problem, even if we do “outperform” quite a few developed countries. As it is, the top five are all about 70 points or more ahead of America. So, I am fully supportive of integrating technology in the classroom and developing 21st Century Skills and focusing on problem solving. I completely believe that the landscape of the workforce is changing and students need to be prepared in a new and innovative way. However, I also do not believe that pedagogy and computers and standards is the final solution to our performance issues. I believe a cultural shift is necessary as well. In fact, I believe everything I just listed will be even better with a healthier academic and mathematical culture. I talk about math culture a lot on this blog but just to quickly highlight what I’m talking about I will list a few things which I am sure are not unique to America, but are likely rare in the top five performing countries. First, and this is the one that hurts the most, is adults growing negative mathematical mindsets in students. A child brings their parent their math homework looking for help and the parent says “I can’t do this. I was never good at math. Everything was fine though! I have a family, a house, a good job. Don’t worry about math.” That sentiment is so toxic to a developing student. It is a frighteningly common attitude, one I have even heard from non-math teachers! It kills motivation for students. It solidifies the idea that there are “math people” and “not math people.” This is a sentiment that put music in danger in schools. There was a time when music was required in schools. Then the idea came around that some people just are not musically inclined. Well, if some people just aren’t made for music why are we wasting educational resources forcing all kids to learn some foundation of music? When budget cuts come around, music always comes up first. I am deeply convinced that is a cultural issue. And now people wonder why all music sounds the same and no one seems to be able to create “great music” anymore. Quietly, the same has happened to math. We culturally disparage mathematics and then wonder where all the American mathematicians went! I talked about that topic longer than I wanted to but this blog was prompted with what inspires us and math culture inspires me. The idea of a toxic culture around mathematics is involved in many issues we face in mathematics. How many movies have the math teacher as the hero? Even Good Will Hunting has the math teacher as the “bad guy.” English teachers are usually the heroes (probably because scriptwriters have more fond memories of English class than math). How many people think “oh cool!” when you mention a major in mathematics? At least science majors are beginning to seem cool in the mainstream. Children soak up these spoken and unspoken sentiments about math and then we wonder why they don’t like math. It’s not cool. It’s hard (and some of that is a pedagogy issue). Life still works out fine when you give up on it. In elementary school, math is the fact memorization and worksheets and boring lessons. Students arrive at middle school and for the first time get a room and a teacher dedicated to math and they are already at a disadvantage. Time to put the soapbox away. That is what I really want to impact. I want to combat the negative mindset towards mathematics most students pick up throughout their childhood. This will enhance 21st Century Skills, tech integration, and the Common Core. I firmly believe it is an investment for a long term achievement in mathematics. So back the question I asked 100 years ago at the start of this post, what do I want from my audience? I want to convince them of the value of changing the culture in their classroom. That takes an investment of time and energy and sacrifices some instructional minutes (although I believe that sacrifice will pay dividends). So my dilemma is, how do I get my audience here? The teachers who find this blog on their own are already motivated to make change. It is an easy win for them. How do I get my small time online blog or capstone website into the hands of educators who AREN’T looking for tools to change their classroom? This is my dilemma, how do I access my audience? There is a sense of irony that in my quest to preach growth mindsets in math, the most likely to listen are those who already have a growth mindset. I feel like my product is in danger of preaching to the choir, so how do I push the borders of my audience? This goes back to Clarke. How do I design my product in a way that it is widely accessible, even to people who might not frequent educational blogs?
3 Comments
Nai Saelee
7/5/2017 05:34:42 pm
Patrick,
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james
7/6/2017 04:53:41 pm
Patrick,
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7/6/2017 07:27:20 pm
One of the key thoughts that run through my mind when reading about our Educational programs and how they relate to the world was we have flaws. As an educator we aren't asked what would work best for your students? We the educators have to find ways to reach our students so they will learn what we have to offer them. I feel like we are powerless in many ways.
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