Re: [xmca] a minus times a plus

[Ng Foo Keong <lefouque@gmail.com>]

hi:

i am teaching some math tuition classes in Singapore, and i am
trying to apply the current academic discourse on mathematical
discourse i.e. moving away from essentialist beliefs about fixed
cognitive abilities to looking at _how_ students and teachers
communicate and make intersubjective meaning.  i model by
making all my cognitive as well as metacognitive processes obvious
by talking out loud, and using different colours to mark pertinent
points to note.  i also intentionally (and sometimes unintentionally)
make mistakes, so pupils could apply a critical mind and build their
identities as active mathematical thinkers instead of being passive
listeners.  i get students to explain their working to the class and to
each other.

seems to be working nicely.   ;-)

F.K.







2009/6/29  <ERIC.RAMBERG@spps.org>:
> Andy:
>
> Perhaps this is helpful, perhaps not.  The military conducts exercises
> with recruits that place them in extremely stressful situations.  Swimming
> in frigid water,high altitudes, etc. and then asks them to do mundane
> exercises (sort cards, say the alphabet, multiplication tables, etc.).
> Those who fail these mundane exercises do not suffer deficits but rather
> have a profundity for their brains to resort to basic survival mode and
> abort any attempt of higher psychological functioning.  Anxiety has a huge
> influence on how people's higher psychological functions work and as any
> CHATer would know anxiety is tied to the socio-cultural-history of a given
> activity.  Steve is on the right track to bring up Davidov's notion of
> backward tracking but yes I find the explanation to be Piaget in nature
> but not piaget in concept.  Perhaps it is piaget in nature because
> intellectuals at a certain level of development speak in very scope and
> sequence methodology regardless of their philosophical underpinnings.
>
> eric
_______________________________________________
xmca mailing list
xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca