Harvard Psychologist On Teaching Math.

As teachers, many of us are looking around for the best way to teach mathematics.  One person, Jon R Star, a distinguished psychologist at Harvard University,  has spent years researching this topic with professors from Vanderbilt university.  Over time, he has determined better ways to teach math.  We shall look at what he has to say.

It is well known in the field of psychology that the actual process of learning requires people to reach into their brains to find a certain piece of knowledge, pull it out, think about it, and them putting it back into the brain.  This process is referred to as elaborative coding.  The more a person does this process, the more they will have learned, remembered, and understood.  

In math, he stated that it is important to make sense of the material being taught.  Learning is more than just listening to what the teacher says.  Instead, he emphasizes how important it is for students to develop conceptual knowing in mathematics, so it is important for teachers to present the information in a way that students make sense rather than memorizing or internalizing the material.

In fact, Jon recommends that teachers compare two ways of solving a problem by writing each process side by side and then lead a discussion designed to help students understand the difference between the two methods.  It is the discussion because the teacher has asked students why a strategy works and students must dig into their heads to share what they understand.  In addition, listening to other student's reasoning helps reinforce the process of learning since they have to think about it.

It is thought that when students learn multiple ways to solve problems, it deepens their understanding of content. In addition to providing a wonderful benefit to learning, it helps students see math differently.  Instead of seeing math as needing to memorize methods with one method to solve each problem, they are shown that each problem may have multiple ways to solve.

Furthermore, this type of instruction can make class more interesting.  It simply is best to show students the compare and contrast of two methods  but it involves a lot of thinking for both the teacher and student.  There is a concern that both teachers and students might experience information overload or that the teacher might want to take it further by comparing three or four different methods. 

Although many curriculums already show the various methods for solving problems, they don't often focus on the comparing and contrasting step.  In addition, this strategy often requires teachers spend time preparing the visuals so they can teach but it does help students learn more.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.