The US ranks in the bottom 20% among industrialized nations in math. Educators may want to listen up to what University of Chicago psychologists just found out about how children learn math.
Two groups of third and fourth graders participated in the study. One group was told to use their hands when solving math problems, the other group was not so instructed. The hand-waving group was four times more likely to express new ideas to solve problems, and were one and a half times more likely to get the right answer.
Next thing you know some researcher will be telling us that having students verbalize their ideas will help them learn even more. In the good old days, it was the teacher who did all the talking and hand-waving.
And that just might explain how we got to where we rank in math today.
Showing posts with label mathematics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mathematics. Show all posts
Friday, November 9, 2007
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Acute or obtuse?
Acute is one of those words with several meanings: when used in medicine it refers to an intense, sudden, and short-lived symptom; in literature and analysis it refers to making fine distinctions; and in math it refers to an angle less than 90 degrees. It may also refer to anything of critical importance and consequence, or something sharp and/or pointed.
For example, an article in today’s Khaleef Times observed an acute reduction of girls under age seven in Indian urban areas, which in 20 years decreased from 959 girls per thousand boys to just 906. Alas this acute reduction may result in chronic problems later on, when boys don’t have enough cute girls to meet.
Meanwhile, arctic Beluga whales have what the Vancouver Sun calls acute hearing, able to distinguish human sounds from miles away.
And the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations is the only national certification for acute stroke care, which medical researchers say is of critical importance – shall we say acute – in effective stroke treatment.
In math, an acute angle is certainly more pointed than an obtuse one, and while some may consider the distinction between acute, right, and obtuse angles fine, a cute angle on this is that we all benefit from cooling off when it’s under 90 degrees.
For example, an article in today’s Khaleef Times observed an acute reduction of girls under age seven in Indian urban areas, which in 20 years decreased from 959 girls per thousand boys to just 906. Alas this acute reduction may result in chronic problems later on, when boys don’t have enough cute girls to meet.
Meanwhile, arctic Beluga whales have what the Vancouver Sun calls acute hearing, able to distinguish human sounds from miles away.
And the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations is the only national certification for acute stroke care, which medical researchers say is of critical importance – shall we say acute – in effective stroke treatment.
In math, an acute angle is certainly more pointed than an obtuse one, and while some may consider the distinction between acute, right, and obtuse angles fine, a cute angle on this is that we all benefit from cooling off when it’s under 90 degrees.
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