The weekend's given me some time to reflect on my Maths PD. I particularly liked the fact that the workshop leader talked about a balance in the curriculum, citing research acknowledging the place for procedural fluency, adaptive reasoning, conceptual understanding, strategic competence and productive disposition in maths teaching and learning. The ACER research gives this in detail.
Today I read the article on John Hattie's visit to Alberta - Key to better education. His statements provide an interesting alternate view on constructivist approach. I quote
"The personalized, discovery style of teachers can work, but only after students have accumulated the right amount of knowledge so they’re ready to dig in deeper, Hattie says. “I have no trouble with all the constructivism notions at the right time, but if they dominate, I think they miss the point completely.”
In his book Five Minds for the future Howard Gardener talks about the necessity for students to master the information within the major disciplines like maths. He talks about the disciplined mind that needs to retain information that may not necessarily be intuitive. He also talks of synthesizing and creative minds that need to be cultivated along with respectful and ethical minds.
All above resonate with what experienced teachers have been doing all this while - providing the right balance in the curriculum. The PYP talks about the concepts, knowledge, skills (in the new model skills is replaced by approaches to teaching and learning), attitudes and action and it is again vital to ensure that there is a balance in these components.
Pleased with the learning that validates my own approach towards teaching and learning.
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