MAILING LISTS

Daniel Willingham has  a very interesting blog on pedagogy and recently posted about why Americans stink at math.  What jumped out at me was this passage- does this not sound like TBL in a lot of ways?

"The nub of her argument is this. American stink at math because the methods used to teach it are rote, don’t lead to transfer to the real world, and lead to shallow understanding. There are pedagogical methods that lead to much deeper understanding. U.S. researchers pioneered these methods and Japanese student achievement took off when the Japanese educational system adopted them.

Green points to a particular pedagogical method as being vital to deeper understanding. Traditional classrooms are characterized by the phrase “I, We, You.” The teacher models a new mathematical procedure (“I”), the whole class practices it (“We”), and then individual students try it on their own (“You”). That’s the method that leads to rote, shallow knowledge. More desirable is “You, Y’all, We.” The teacher presents a problem which students try to solve on their own (“You”). Then they meet in small groups to compare and discuss the solutions they’ve devised (Y’all). Finally, the groups share their ideas as a whole class (“We”)."


Here's the blog post:
http://www.realcleareducation.com/articles/2014/07/29/putting_an_end_to_americans_lousy_math_rap_1068.html


Candice Benjes-Small, MLIS
Head, Information Literacy & Outreach
McConnell Library, Radford University, Radford, VA
540.831.6801
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