For a long time the lack of ability to perform or learn mathematics has been reduced to the myth that students are predisposed for mathematical learning; some students are just not good at math. As more researchers look into the existence of math anxiety there is overwhelming evidence that math anxiety has a strong negative impact on a student’s performance in math courses. I believe that teachers have a duty to learn practices that can not only address our student’s math anxiety but reduce it over time. I firmly believe that if we can train teachers to target a student’s math anxiety we will be able to increase that student’s mathematical performance, moving them closer to one years growth in one years time.
My research could potentially have wide reaching effects. On an International level my research could establish a way for countries to identify math anxiety, even creating standards for official diagnosis, treatment and pedagogical approaches that address math anxiety before mathematical content. On a National level it could help the United States confront its long standing passivity when it comes to accepted Mathphobia, provide for students a way to better identify and explain their learning needs and set a teaching standard for math instructors that would require them to acknowledge the whole students’ needs in a math classroom. My research could also add language to the standards for mathematical practice requiring math anxiety to be addressed. At a State level my research could establish an initiative for funding into further math anxiety research, leading to a state adopted set of teaching practices which help students with math anxiety to continue developing in their conceptual/procedural understanding. At a District level we could establish the need for professional development on the practices which reduce math anxiety in our students, allowing teachers to reach students who have been stagnant in their mathematical development. At a School site level my research could bring attention to the existence of math anxiety, help our counseling team and peer counseling team identify math anxiety in students and give my department the tools to teach students who think “Math is not for me”. In doing research for my literary review I have split articles into two categories: 1. Studies related to the existence of math anxiety in students 2. Articles that address teaching practices related to reducing math anxiety I have found many articles which establish that existence of math anxiety in students and talk about the negative effects that math anxiety has on their performance but I have only found 2 articles which address the interventions and practices that teachers can use in their classrooms in order to reduce the level of math anxiety their students feel. This indicates to me that we are still searching for effective methods to reduce student’s feelings of anxiety and at this point the burden is placed upon the student to come up with methods of surviving despite the anxiety experienced in connection to math.
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The implementation of technology in my classroom has been a slow process but one that is continual. As time progresses I continue to see the need for a more dynamic approach to instruction, especially being that my main instructional practice is direct instruction. While I feel I am fluctuating between the adaptation and appropriation levels of technology integration I know that with a few simple additions I could easily move closer towards innovating.
My first experience with integrating technology in my classroom was converting all of my lectures into digital slide shows that I could then project directly onto my white board and interact with them. I was effectively using my basic white board as a smart board without any of the fancy integrated tools that would have allowed me to make the slide shows more dynamic. Students loved the change because as I added more examples, photos and eventually videos they could more easily see the content come alive. The slideshows freed me to move around the room and interact with the students in a more meaningful way. I began to feel the freedom to experiment with students coming up to the board or working in small groups. Being that I was not locked to the front of the classroom I could move around and see much more authentically who was effectively learning material. A byproduct of the slide shows was a more dynamic way for students to take notes. Instead of simply reading the slides and writing down information, which most students did ineffectively anyway, I wanted to craft an interactive process where I could help guide the students to the most important knowledge in the lecture while also structuring the way they would organize logical thought in order to facilitate transfer learning. I came up with the system of guided notes where students would have to actively engage with my lecture by filling in missing pieces of information, copying examples and then trying examples on their own. These guided notes could be accessed physically or digitally so that students would be able to fill them out anyway they feel most comfortable. This system provided a structure for their learning, a need for them to engage with technology and a way for me to effectively see who was learning. A huge part of professional development at my school site is sharing with our colleagues the effective uses of technology that we have implemented in our classrooms. I have done workshops in integrating digital slideshows and guided notes as a means of integrating technology in the classrooms of teachers who are reluctant to make the leap. Much like the sentiment of Mishra on “new media ecology” it can be overwhelming for some teachers to implement technology in their classroom when they feel that it has to be all or nothing type of integration. Digital lectures is an easy transition; especially for teachers who use direct instruction as their main means of communicating content. Once lectures are created in a digital space they can be tweaked year after year in order to meet the evolving state standards. Form my colleagues I have learned of amazing tools such as padlett, plickers, kuta, kahoot and khan Academy that I have slowly begun to use with my students in order to build their digital fluency and agency when it comes to demonstrations of understanding. Pouring over the list of interests we generated in relation to possible research topics as well as the planning document completed during our breakout sessions “Driving question and passions” it was clear that I wanted to look into teaching strategies that address my students math related anxiety and any experienced trauma related to this anxiety.
Thinking deeper about the questions I still had related to this topic I came up with a list of concerns that would, hopefully, help to kick start my research. If I look into the answers to the following questions I believe that a narrative structure will begin to form: Are my students familiar with anxiety and how many of them have specific feelings of anxiety centered on mathematics? What experience(s) are the root to my students math related anxiety? Was this root experience teacher driven or content driven? Have my students experienced teaching strategies that reduced feelings of anxiety in any classroom? What actions have teachers taken that have increased tension or feelings of anxiety in any classroom? Specifically related to my site and our reflections on community responsive, sustaining and humanizing (CRuSH) practices over the last couple years, how can I adapt these practices to work in the context of my classroom? Teaching a class where the entire population of enrolled students had previously failed the same course, with a different instructor, provides me with the ideal test group for strategies aimed at increasing my students learning capacity and desire to succeed despite math related anxiety. I am unsure of specific need to knows but the fact that they are repeating a math course could be a point of origin that would allow me to contextualize students current success or failure in terms of the success or failure of my ability to address their math related anxiety through my teaching practices. I could also create a test for the level of student’s anxiety related to math and continue to check in with students, reassessing their level of anxiety as the year progresses. After collecting data over time I could see if there is a correlation between decreased levels of anxiety and increased capacity evidenced through academic performance. I am unsure of how exactly to proceed but for now I will continue to refine my EQ and think of ways that I can collect data to measure my need to knows. We are living in an ever evolving world; expanding technologically in every direction. It seems, at times, that the only field stunted in its growth is the teaching profession. With our inability to adapt to the proliferation of digital fluency, are we meeting the changing needs of our students? In many school districts all across the U.S., NVUSD included, it is not uncommon for students to be using textbooks from before the new Millennium. Using textbooks and best practices far outdated by what is available to our students on the other end of a quick google search, they are left wanting for relevant material; to feel like school is preparing them for the world they will inherit.
When our students are constantly connected to an entire global wealth of information via their smartphones, how can anything we do in our classrooms compete with the education they could gain through digital crowdsourcing? Has our role as educator moved away from the sage, all-knowing, disseminator of knowledge and understanding, to coach, one who builds within our students the capacity to find knowledge and understanding on their own, using every tool at their disposal? How do we, in this new role, prepare our student for jobs that do not exist yet, in a world that will not look like the one we currently operate in? Sir Ken Robinsons speaks to the need for schools to update their understanding of what genius looks like. He encourages us to celebrate a student’s creative mind instead of crushing it with the memorization of facts and procedure; considered the mark of academic success. His sentiment speaks directly to the outdated view that school should be a one size fits all assembly line, preparing students to contribute in an industrialized world. Now, more than ever, our classrooms need to be dynamic. We need to show our students that solving problems requires creativity. That procedural understanding is absolutely vital but only if they have the insight to see how procedure can help find answers to their problems. From looking at the research of Dr. Patricia Kuhl on learning and the social brain it is clear that an effective classroom must include opportunities for students to be social. Learning has to be interactive and most of the interaction should come from community being built in the classroom. Students need access to one another in order to co create and co design learning opportunities. We have to be intentional with our group work so that it has purpose. Students should not simply be placed in groups but specifically taught how to work in these environments. As teachers we should be looking for opportunities to shape group interaction as a means to build our student’s commitment to focus rather than distraction. Thinking of all the direct instruction that takes place in my classroom, I have to ask myself, how effectively does note taking prepare my students for learning outside of my content? I realize that note taking is important but does it allow students to participate in the learning? Are they just passively receiving facts I feel will move them to a better understanding of my content area? We are now, more than ever, equipped to provide our students with an education that leverages digital tools to build their 21st century skills. If we use these tools effectively we will prepare our students for the workforce of tomorrow. It is mandatory that we think very closely about our instructional practice and determine if we are simply shoving fact and procedure into the faces of our students or if we are celebrating their creative and social brains in order to drive their desire to learn. In journaling about my own teaching practice I have gathered questions resulting from natural curiosities and desires I have in relation to helping students in and around my classroom develop a greater passion for math. Here are the questions I have gathered:
I believe that these questions, once developed into a guiding framework for research, could lead me to many interesting discoveries. In order to truly attempt to answer the questions above I will need to look deeper into each issue and know the following: 1. How does group work help my students learn material? How do students learn to function in groups so that they are effective? What is the primary function of having students work in groups; is it to learn math content, to practice math content, or to connect the real word with math content? 2. What issues are preventing my students from building confidence in their math ability? What previous trauma may have occurred around math instruction to give them such negative feeling about math? What instructional practices can not only teach content but address the whole student? Is it necessary for my students to like math in order to be good at it? 3. What alternative forms of assessment exist that are common in other math classrooms? Can I use the same alternative assessment on students despite their different levels and learning styles? How will I be able to accurately measure students growth using alternative summative assessments? Based on my experience in the classroom and research that I have done I can say that I know: 1. My students usually take group work as an opportunity to be social instead of an opportunity for learning with/from their peers. Some students loath group work and can produce much more quality work when not restricted by their peers. Group work does not fit naturally with my current instructional practice, classroom set up and classroom norms. 2. Most of my students who are repeating math 1 report that they have some form of math trauma and that they have experienced high levels of anxiety in spaces where they are required to do math. I have been very sucessful in helping students to pass math 1 their second time through the program by using CRSH (Culturally responsive, sustaining and humanizing) practices. 3. Students report that testing, even testing when they feel prepared, causes them anxiety. Alternative forms of assessment are usually tailored to individual students to allow them to demonstrate their understanding. It will be exciting to see how my research question develops over the course of this semester! |
Brandon DeJesusMath Archives
July 2019
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