Barger, R.H., & McCoy, A.C. (2009). Sacred cows make the best hamburgers. Mathematics Teacher, 102(6), 414-418.
The main idea of this article was that college mathematics courses should be more interactive and hands-on. Instead of the lecture and practice problems homework system that most courses consist of, Barger and McCoy did research and then tested out their own mathematics course, entitled Contemporary Mathematics, in which they implemented their creative and interactive material. The course is an equivalent of a mathematics general education course, in which most students are not majoring in anything related to the math or science areas. In the article, they highlighted the lessons on volume and surface area. Before starting this class, they noticed that a lot of students mix up the formulas for volume and surface area, proposing that this is because students do not understand the formulas. In this new course, the students built shapes and formulated their own hypotheses of what volume and surface area is and how to find them for different shapes. As was shown through test scores, the students understood mathematics so much more and grades improved. Additionally, Barger and McCoy point out that these interactive methods do not take that much more time than regular lectures and that understanding the formulas is worth much more than the extra time! Thus they concluded that mathematics can be taught in a different and more meaningful way to students in college.
From all my studies of education, I agree that mathematics courses can and should be more interactive. Firstly, the main reason they wanted mathematics courses to be more interactive and hands-on is so that students will understand more. I think this is supported by our study of relational learning in MathEd 117. By working it out and discovering "formulas" on their own, these students are doing relational learning, which will impact their learning and their tests scores. Secondly, this idea is supported from what I have studied in my Theatre Ed classes. "Dramatic learning" is when students are able to take control of their learning, by hands-on activities and the time develop their own ways to learn things. This article supported that type of learning because the students made their own formulas for volume and surface area. Thirdly, Barger and McCoy addressed my one concern - time. They acknowledged this but said the time was not so much more that it overpowered the understanding these students were gaining. Thus, I am sold on this new idea!
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This was an awesome summary, you hit a lot of points and I feel like I almost read the article after reading your summary. The only thing I noticed were a few awkward sentences at the beginning. I had to reread them a few times, but I finally got them. Other than that, fantastic job!
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with Haley, I felt like I had gained a lot of information from this blog entry without even having read the article. I too had a concern about time being an issue but I was glad to see that they had addressed that issue in the article. I am concerned about whether or not that type of instruction would work in a large class setting like many of the general education mathematics courses at BYU. I am curious to know if hands on education like that, would be feasible for a university of this size.
ReplyDeleteBibliography feedback: you need spaces between the initials in the authors' names
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading this blog entry very much. I thought that the first paragraph provided a nice summary of the article. I liked how you identified the main idea in the topic sentence, and then developed that idea further in the paragraph. The amount of description in the first paragraph was very helpful in understanding how the authors were making their case for a different type of instruction.
I also thought the second paragraph was strong. You took a clear stance toward the main idea and supported it with three reasons. The flow of the paragraph was easy to follow except for the second point. I'm still not quite sure what the second sentence for that point means.
I liked your summary of the article a lot. I have not read this article but it sounds interesting and I definitely would like to read it. I believe that hands on activities can be beneficial for some students learning; however not all students learn in that way. For example, I prefer lectures to activities. In the second paragraph you supported your ideas strongly. Well done!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this post very much. You did a great job! I understood what the article was about and I liked how you brought up the negative side to their new idea. I felt that you clearly expressed your opinion. I also think that this teaching method is very beneficial!
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