Math Reflection Week 3: Learning Styles and Mistakes

Class began this week with a small math game. We played a version of I Have/Who Has? which involves everyone getting a card with a math problem, the sum of that number is the number you have. The card also gives you a number that someone else has to have who goes next. It's a really simple game but I think it would work really well in a math classroom. There are just a few modifications I would do to it to help better scaffold math learning. For example I would make sure every card had to do with the same type of math problems (multiplication, division, exponents, etc.). I would then make sure that this activity functions like a math string, having each question build on the skills, patterns, and knowledges of the previous questions. As a teacher I would also try and write down the moth problems on the board for every student to see and work out. I think with these small modifications the game can be more accessible and enjoyable for more students.

After that we had a long talk about learning styles in math. Learning styles meaning people being auditory, visual, or kinesthetic learners. I know I was definitely not the only one in class who was kind of rolling their eyes at the idea of taking another learning styles quiz or just hearing about learning styles again. As many of you may or may not know learning styles has (at least in academic pedagogical circles) fallen out of favour. Why? Well for starters the study that argued for learning styles had weak evidence to begin with and made very large claims about how catering to them could affect learning. There are a lot of studies critiquing learning styles so I won't belabor the point. A quick look online will give you some places to start for further reading. 

The last thing that I looked into this week was the idea of mistakes helping us grow in math. Scientifically you experience more neural growth in the brain when you get a math question wrong than when you get it right. This seems to make sense, as there really isn't any new information received in getting a question right, but there certainly is in getting one wrong. I think a lot of people, particularly young students, are afraid of failure. I think as educators we have a responsibility to create an environment where mistakes are good and seen as stepping stones to success. There's a phrase that I really like called "failing forward". I've heard this phrase a lot in the context of table-top games, where a failed dice roll usually means nothing happens, in a fail forward game it means that something interesting still happens. The idea is that the game still goes forward even if a dice roll is failed. I like the idea of applying this to learning. Just because you failed to give a correct answer should not mean you failed to progress, to learn, or to enjoy yourself.

Michael Feagan. (Sept.21 2017). Math Quote [photo].