This post was written by Jo Boaler, a professor of mathematics education at Stanford University, co-founder of www.youcubed.org, and author of What’s Math Got To Do With It: How Teachers and Parents Can Transform Mathematics Learning and Inspire Success.
It was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education and is reprinted here with permission.
It’s time to debunk the myths about who is good in math, and Common Core state standards move us toward this worthy goal. Mathematics and technology leaders support the standards because they are rooted in the new brain and learning sciences.
All children are different in their thinking, strength, and interests. Mathematics classes of the past decade have valued one type of math learner, one who can memorize well and calculate fast.
[Related: Common Core: Bringing Calm to Classroom Chaos]
Yet data from the 13 million students who took PISA tests showed that the lowest achieving students worldwide were those who used a memorization strategy — those who thought of math as a set of methods to remember and who approached math by trying to memorize steps. The highest achieving students were those who thought of math as a set of connected, big ideas.
The U.S. has more memorizers than most other countries in the world. Perhaps not surprisingly as math teachers, driven by narrow state standards and tests, have valued those students over all others, communicating to many other students along the way — often girls — that they do not belong in math class.
The fact that we have valued one type of learner and given others the idea that they cannot do math is part of the reason for the widespread math failure and dislike in the U.S.
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