Research-Based

So I’m on Spring Break this week and I am finally finished cleaning my house, the kids are off to Memaw’s house and my husband is cooking me dinner. At last, I am getting a few moments alone with my laptop!!! And being the nerd that I am, the one thing that I want to do most is peruse Carnegie’s Resource Center since I haven’t gotten to in a while (you may laugh at me if you want to – my husband does all the time).

So I stumbled across an article called “Improving Student Achievement in Mathematics” and decided to give it a read. (If you get a chance – you should give it a read as well.) It is a research article by the ERIC Clearinghouse for Science, Mathematics and Environmental Education. And it was a refreshment of reaffirmation that what I do every day (when I teach the Carnegie way) is the RIGHT thing for my students!! It might not be the easiest way to teach, but it is undoubtedly the BEST way to teach.

If you will, I’d like to share the most crucial truths that I read with you and how they have changed MY teaching over the years…

“Giving students both an opportunity to discover and invent new knowledge and an opportunity to practice what they have learned improves student achievement.”

Somehow in my first few years of teaching, I had this sense that when I could ever make it possible for my students to “discover” a formula or algorithm on their own they were SO much more likely to remember it than if I just went to the board and showed it to them myself (along with 15 examples). But it seemed nearly impossible for me to create inquiry-based activities where my students were “discovering” every concept I wanted to teach them. Plus it was a lot easier to just slap 15 examples on the board, show them what to do and hand them a worksheet to practice.

In the article it also shares that according to the TIMSS video study, over 90% of 8th grade math classroom time is spent on practicing routine procedures (a worksheet with 30 problems) and the other 10% is spent applying those procedures to new situations (the 3 word problems at the end). If this is the way we run our classrooms, what time is left for inquiry, discovery, and invention of new procedures?? Why, as math teachers, do we sometimes think that they way we LEARNED mathematics is the end-all-be-all? What would life be like if no one was ever given a chance to think for themselves, to solve problems their own way, and to share those solutions with other people? Why do we think that our students are incapable of figuring things out without us?

Here are a few other “excerpts” from the article…

“Teaching that incorporates students’ intuitive solution methods can increase student learning, especially when combined with opportunities for student interaction and discussion.”

“Using small groups of students to work…can increase student mathematics achievement.”

“Whole-class discussion following individual and group work improves student achievement.”

Again, even in my first few years of teaching, I had a sense that all of this was true, but I was overwhelmed with the question of how I could pull it off in my classroom with the materials I had been given?

And then I met Carnegie - I’ll never forget it. I was a part of a summer Math Academy along with 100s of other Kentucky teachers and they were having us work problems (from Carnegie’s text) not to sell us the product, but just to help us better understand deeper mathematical concepts ourselves (as teachers). I fell in love at first sight. Seriously – I immediately wanted to know where I could get this stuff to use with my students. It was exactly what I had been looking for. And after a few years of fighting for some money, I finally got my wish!! (Thank goodness.)

Now-a-days we throw the term “research-based” around like it’s an “Energy Star” sticker for curriculums and educational products. Rarely do we question the “research” that products claim to be based upon!! There is a plethora of research backing Carnegie’s curriculum and attitudes on mathematics education. But after reading this one article, I am encouraged again that as a Carnegie teacher, I am doing the BEST for my students!!

By the way, be sure to check out Carnegie’s new website design and their new logo at www.carnegielearning.com!!