Free Online Class for Parents and Teachers on the Psychology of Math Learning

Can psychological theories, such as personality type and learning style, help explain why some students take naturally to math while others struggle?  This is a subject of a FREE online class that I will be leading for the next six weeks through the School of Math Future in Peer-to-Peer University (called P2PU).

Actually, while it is called a class, it is more like a technology-facilitated discussion group.  The philosophy behind P2PU is that people with common interests all have something to share with each other, even if some have more experience or schooling than others.  So I am setting up the structure of the classes and giving us all some exercises and/or reading so we have some common ground to talk about, but all the participants will be equally involved in coming up with answers, or at least suggestions, to the discussion topics.

The structure of the class is that each week we will focus on one type of psychological theory and see if it can help to explain why some of us find math to breeze while others just don't seem to "get it."  The proposed theories we will be exploring are:

• Myers-Briggs Personality Style
• Left-brained/Right-brained Learners
• Learning Modalities
• Gender Differences

Participants will take online assessment tests and post their results to the group, along with a written reflections whether they think that assessment has any baring on their success or failure in math.  Thus, most of the class will take place asynchronously through sharing written statements on the class forum.  However, there will be one "real-time" web discussion each week, which will take place on Tuesday evenings at 9:00 PM Eastern time.  Class members who are available at that time will pose questions and exchange thoughts on that week's assignments; the other members can review the discussion at their convenience, since the "live" sessions will be taped.  I expect that participating in the class will require approximately 2-3 hours per week (doing the assessments, writing posts, engaging in the "live" discussion, etc.).

Here is the official description of the class:

Summary

  More than almost any other discipline, mathematics can cause real angst for those students who just "don't get it" (have you ever heard of "history anxiety" or "art anxiety"?). But why do some students find math to be a fun, natural, and creative discipline, while others struggle and just can't seem to figure it out, no matter how hard they work on it? To answer this question, educators tend to focus on the "nurture" factors, such as the parents' abilities and feelings about math, whether the student lives in a math-rich environment, the quality of the math teachers, or the type of curriculum followed. But in this class, we'll be exploring the "nature" side of the question. We will look at psychological theories, such as personality style, learning style, and gender differences, to see if they can illuminate why some of us think math is joy, while for others it seems more like a nightmare.

Learning objectives

The objectives of this course are:

• to learn some basics about psychological theories such as personality styles, learning modalities, and gender differences;
• to assess our own styles within these theories and consider whether they had an influence on our experience with math;
• to share our assessment with each other to see if we can find any general trends that relate specific psychological traits to math success or failure.

If you are interested in joining us, please follow the signup instructions on the P2PU website at: http://p2pu.org/math-future/psychology-math-learning .  But the class starts next week (this session runs from January 26 - March 9, 2011), so be sure to respond soon if you are interested.

The School of Math Future also has some other free classes running on P2PU.  They include

Math-rich baby and toddler environment

Introduction to Math Art

Create+Share Math Interactives

Mathematics for Game Designers

Short Calculus

Mathematics Curriculum Development

CPD through Twitter for Mathematics educators

All are free and still have space available as of this evening, although space is limited.

Stephen Colbert Coins New Word For Wake County School Battles

I used to think things couldn't get much worse for the national image of the Wake County School System than the very public rebuke of the U.S. Education Secretary.....but it turns out I was wrong.

Now Wake County has become the inspiration for Stephen Colbert's "Word of the Day" segment last night.  My text can't do it justice, so just watch the clip and make up your own mind about it:








http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/371414/january-18-2011/the-word---disintegration


Thanks so much to my good friend Bridget for bringing this to my attention!

Why Educate?

I was going to write something different today, but I was inspired by one of the comments from a previous post (see what power you have if you leave a comment?) to draw together some thoughts I've been pondering for a few weeks about what is the point of education.  That was not her question; her question, posted in response to my post about the latest battle over whether or not our local school system in Wake County, NC should drop its accreditation rather than to submit to the questions posed by the accrediting agency, is how people can continue to deal with the frustration of trying to resolve the numerous issues that are dividing our community about the fundamental principles of our educational system.

But I think those are both really the same question, or at least, the same set of questions.  Why does it matter?  Who cares about education?  What is it that education should be doing?  Why care?  Why educate?

So let me give you my perspective on this issue.  As I've said before, I'm from the DC area originally, and between growing up there and spending most of my professional life there, I've met lots of important and significant people in many different realms (not the least of which is my father, who held presidential appointment-level positions under six? eight? different US Presidents, along with teaching in two universities and serving as a top-level executive in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York).  But no matter how accomplished (or not), almost everyone I've talked to who has children tells me that their children are at least as important as, if not more significant than, whatever they have achieved in their professional lives.  I think for most people, if you ask them the most miraculous moments in their lives, the top ones include holding their child(ren) in their arms for the first time--whether the children were naturally born, adopted, born through a surrogate, or whatever.  For the vast majority of those of us blessed with children, other things fade in comparison with them.

Even those who haven't raised children themselves usually have a soft spot for children.  Some chose to forego them because they thought they couldn't be the kind of parent they wanted to be, given their professional or other life situations.  Others wanted to be, but things just didn't work out.  And some just never felt the call that parenthood was for them.  But that doesn't mean that such people don't care about and work towards the safety and well being of children.  Because, as the saying goes, it DOES take a village.

So at least in the US, once you've got the child's basic food, shelter, and physical safety needs met, the next need we deem most important as a society is the child's education (we could make a good case here for children's health care, but we'll leave that for another post).  But education is kind of a funny thing with us Americans.  With our rugged individualism mythological past, we tend to think it is up to the parents to take care of feeding, clothing, sheltering, and providing medical care to their own children.  But everybody wants to have some say in how the children are educated, since our historical analogy was education as a melting pot where all sorts of different cultures came in, blended together, and were poured out into multi-colored molds, producing components that fit together to build an ever bigger and better America.

So this is part one of the question--Why does it matter?  Why deal with the frustration?  Why bother?  We care and we fight and we bother and we persevere despite frustration because, really, what else can be more important?  Yes, we can do other things---we can acquire wealth, or fame, or accomplishment, or lose ourselves in hedonistic pleasures, or just surrender ourselves to staying in bed all day.  Does any of that matter all that much in the long run?  Most of us want to invest at least some of our energy in making sure that the next generation not only survives, but flourishes.  And for many of us, the education system is the most tangible way we can do that (beside supporting the raising of our own immediate families).

So people have a high level of investment in the fact that education matters, not just for their own family, but for society in general.  High enough that for many of us, at least, it is enough to forego the frustration and negative energy to continue to fight for what we believe.

This point of view assumes agreement about the importance of education and the future of "our" children.  So our real issues, then, are about what it is that education should be doing.

I can't be a good advocate for the point of view of the current majority of the Board of Education--who, it is important to remind ourselves, were elected by a majority of the voters in Wake County.  If there is every a reader from that side who would like to present that perspective, I would LOVE for you to send me a guest post, which I PROMISE to post (with full credit, of course).

Until that happens, though, I can only present my perspective and the things that inspire me.

As I've said before, we homeschool, and one of the reasons we do so is because I don't like the current commitment nationwide to evaluating education only by those things that can be rated by standardized tests.  We are just starting a study of Dickensonian English history and literature, so when thinking of the present approach to education, I can't help but recall the opening passage to Dicken's Hard Times (his novel that deals most specifically with education):

'NOW, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!'

Maybe it is my personality, maybe it is my education philosophy, or who knows...but I while I think facts are definitely important, there are other important things.  As Albert Einstein says, "Imagination is more important than knowledge.  For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."  So facts teaches our children what we know from the past, but in the rapidly-changing world in which we live, preparing for an unknown future must be, I think, equally important.

(Note:  Of course, this is not one of the battles that are even being debated in the ongoingly-contentious Wake County School Board public meetings.  But perhaps we can get to it once we settle the issues about who should be going where and how we should distribute the resources and children of this county.)

Let me add a few links of other people who have asked this question about the ultimate role of education.

In honor of Martin Luther King's Day yesterday, here is a link to his article on this issue.  Dr. King makes the point that it is not enough for education to make our children smart; it must give them character as well.  He gives an example of a man who is an accomplished scholar within the realm of academia, but can still justify discrimination against people based purely on the color of their skin.

Then, in the Washington Post today, the president of Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia wrote a nice piece about the purpose of a liberal arts college education today.  According to Dr. Christopher Howard, the role of COLLEGE (let alone undergraduate education) is to help today's students make sense of their individual experience with the world, past, present, and future.  Dr. Howard calls for engagement, which he describes as purpose, passion, and calling, rather than providing them with specific skills, knowledge, or employment tracks.

One of the other blogs that I follow, a lovely site called Fairy Dust Teaching, kind of sparked my thinking along these lines with a post she had last month.  She is a Waldorf-trained Kindergarten teacher, so she is the other end of the spectrum.  But one of the thing she said in her post was:
I have a sticky note posted in the front of my lesson plan book that says, "A good education gives you goosebumps."  It reminds me to not forget to add a little wonder and curiosity in the plan.  


I love that reminder.  I may not always get there, but I think that is a great goal to aim for.  To read the rest of her inspirational notes, see her post on Why Educate?

I have one last reference to add.  I have been reading the magnificent book, My Reading Life by Pat Conroy, a writer that I have adored now for about 20 year now.  This book is like a Valentine's Box of Godiva Chocolates for literature, and each essay is like the richest literary truffle you could ever imagine.  But Conroy is only the latest to write about the impact that an individual teacher made on his life.  In his case, it was an English teacher whom Conroy describes as:
Gene Morris didn't just make his students love books; he made us love the entire world.  He was the essential man in the lives of a thousand boys and girls who dwelled in the shadow of his almost unnoticeable greatness.

Conroy had one other fantastic quote from that essay that I must add:
If there is more important work than teaching, I hope to learn about it before I die.

And that, I think, sums up why we continue, despite the frustration.

Two Stories on Martin Luther King Jr.

Happy Martin Luther King's Day!  Of course, today is just the official celebration; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s actual birthday is January 15--same as my son!  For the past several years, we've done some community service on this day, but we're kind of under the weather this year.  So I guess my community service is passing on these two stories from recent articles that I think really speak to who Martin Luther King was as a leader and to the vision he had for our country.

The first is a tale told by Clarence B. Jones, Dr. King's friend, lawyer, and assistant speechwriter.  The Washington Post printed a condensed version of the story behind King's most famous speech as explained in Jones' (with co-author Stuart Connelly) new book, Behind the Dream:  The Making of he Speech That Transformed A Nation.  According to Jones, King and his associates were so busy managing the logistics of the huge March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, scheduled for August 28, 1963, that they didn't even get to start working on the speech until the night before.  Numerous different constituencies--civil rights groups, unions, academia, churches, and community organization--had all been collaborating in pulling this off, and each had ideas about what needed to be included in the speech.  So Jones drafted a preliminary speech that tried to incorporate all those points of views, which MLK eventually took to his bedroom that night to work on and pray over.

The next day, the event seemed to be unfolding without a hitch--wonderful weather, well managed logistics, and no violent encounters as had been feared.  All that remained was for Dr. King to put his personal capstone on the gathering.  That epiphanal speech started out virtually as Jones had written it.  But then  that butterfly wing that changes the world happened.  In this case, the butterfly was gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, one of Dr. King's favorite singers and closest supporters who had performed earlier in the day.  Jackson spontaneously called out, "Tell 'em about the dream, Martin, tell 'em about the dream."  And Dr. King, inspired by her comment, put aside his prepared speech, and spoke to this massive crowd off the cuff, from his heart, and repeating what are some of the most famous words of the 1960's, if not of the entire century--I have a dream.

It was a brilliant performance by a brilliant speaker, and it delivered exactly the message that the crowd--and, really, the world--needed to hear at that time.  But it shows what courage, what confidence, and what faith the man had--and the risks he was willing to take to listen to what his heart, and not his head, told him to do.  The religious, of course, believe he was taken over by spirit.  But even if you don't believe in a spiritual power, you have to believe that he was completely in touch with, and totally surrendered to, the needs of the people at that moment in time.

The speech is a marvel, regardless of where it came from or by whom or how it was written (you can read or listen to the speech at the American Rhetoric Top 100 Speeches website).  But I think this story demonstrates his other leadership qualities besides just his suburb speaking ability.

The second story is more of an anecdote told by actress Nichelle Nichols, the African American woman who played the TV barrier-busting role of Lieutenant Uhura in the original Star Trek series.  In an article for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Nichols confessed that after the first year of the show, she planned to leave to pursue her personal ambitious to perform on Broadway.  However, the weekend after she had told the show's create, Gene Roddenberry, about her desire to quit, she attended an NAACP fundraiser where she met Dr. King, who informed her that he was "the biggest Trekkie on the planet."  Dr. King waxed eloquently about Nichols' role on the show--her grace, dignity, strength, and character.  So when Nichols admitted that she was leaving the show, Dr. King told her she couldn't.  He convinced her that Star Wars was giving people a picture of the kind of future society he was trying to describe in his speeches (such as the "I Have A Dream" speech).  Black, white, Asian, and Alien men and women working together where competence, rather than color, culture, or country, mattered--that was something that the American people needed to see at that time.

And like King himself at that tremendous rally, Nichols surrendered to the moment.  If Dr. King thought it was that important for her to continue doing the show, then she decided to turn aside her personal desires and commit herself to the role for as long as it took.   Between the TV show and the Star Trek movies, Nichols never really realized her goal of singing and dancing in Broadway musicals.  Yet she says that, looking back, she doesn't regret a moment of it.  And the scores of people, particularly black women, who looked up to her as role models as they were growing up (including Whoopi Goldberg and the first African-American female astronaut, Dr. Mae Jeminson) are glad that she didn't.

I love both these stories about Dr. King because they show a man who not only got the big things right--like the plans and speech for the March on Washington--but also the little ones....hearing the wisdom in a random statement, or seeing the possibility in a (then) little known television show.

These are great stories to teach our children how a great leader works--no matter what his or her gender, background, race, country, or political or religious persuasion.

Museum's Middle School Girls in Science Applications Due February 4, 2011

If you have a 6th or 7th grade girl who is passionate about science and who lives in Wake County, NC or one of the surrounding counties, you might want to look into the Girls in Science Neuse River Project sponsored by the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.  This intensive 10-week program allows middle school girls to work individually with female scientists investigating issues related to wetlands and native species in North Carolina.  The weekly sessions, which take place from 3:30-5:30 each Tuesday afternoon (starting March 1), will include classes at the museum or other science institutions, field trips, and hands-on experiments in the field.  There is also an overnight stay at the Museum' Prairie Ridge facility, followed by an Open House presentation of the outcomes achieved on May 15.

To apply, download the form and schedule from the Museum's website (click here to go to that page).  The application includes an essay by the student, a personal recommendation from an adult not related to the student, and a recommendation from the girl's 6th grade science teacher (who I think can be related--at least, I know that homeschoolers have participated in this program).  If accepted, there is a $65 fee (mostly to cover equipment and the overnight stay) and an expectation that the student will attend all sessions.  The complete application is due IN the Museum by 5:00 on Friday, February 4.

I do have one friend whose daughter participated in this program, and they found it to be valuable.  So those of you with middle school girls whose schedules aren't TOO overloaded already might want to take advantage of what I'm sure is a high-quality program (at least, we've always been impressed with the quality of the classes we've taken through the Museum).

Why Wake County Board Should Continue Accreditation with AdvancedED

All in all, it hasn't been a good week for the Wake County Board of Education.

After the first three days of the week being either early release, cancelled, or opened late due to ice, school were having a rocky week.  Then Wednesday night, the Board had another public meeting filled with angry and concerned parents.  This time the contention was over statements by some of the Board that they might just choose to drop their accredited status, rather than answer the questions being posed by AdvancED, the accrediting agency for the Wake system.  The Board majority's compromise decision was to write a letter to AdvancED regarding the restrictions under which they would agree to cooperate with the agency's attempts to investigate charges of racial discrimination and improper board procedures lodged by the state's NAACP chapter.  Less than 24 hours later, the Board received AdvancED's response, which was basically "Sorry, Charlie."  I'm sure it was stated in more appropriate legalese, but AdvancED could have reduced it to the immortal words of the Jeffrey Rush character in my favorite movie of the moment, The King's Speech, when he said, "My game, my turf, my rules."  That is, the whole point of accreditation is to have an experienced, unbiased, outside team of educational experts look at the operation of a school to assure the public of its quality (or alert them to lack thereof).  They can't really do that if the schools they are examining tell them what parts of the system they can and can not look into.

Then, on Friday, the head educator in the entire country, the U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, chose to single out Wake Country among all the public school systems in the country to question its commitment to racial equity.  And this was not an off-hand comment captured on someone's iPhone; it was stated in a Letter to the Editor of the Washington Post expressing his concerns about the WCPSS as depicted in a Washington Post article that I mentioned earlier this week.  (Click here to see the letter in the Washington Post.)

Although it may not seem like it, I really try hard to understand the point of view of the Republican majority on the School Board, and I do my best to see them in their best light.  Nonetheless, I have to say that I think it would be foolish for the Board to continue down this destructive path towards non-accreditation.  There are three major arguments against pursuing this course of action:

1.  Lack of Accreditation Will Hurt Graduating Students

Accreditation is the accepted procedure for colleges to know you are coming from a respectable school system.  Losing your accreditation--or voluntarily withdrawing from accreditation when under an investigation--makes the system look fishy.  Board Chair Margiotta, in his ignorance?arrogance? I don't know, I'm having a hard time finding a more neutral term here, states that since Wake County is so big, he is sure that colleges won't stop excepting Wake County graduates.  He's probably right--for schools in North Carolina.  I'm sure there's no way that NC State or UNC is going to ban all Wake County schools from their campuses, nor will ECU or probably Duke or other colleges in the state.  But that understanding of this special situation will fade the further from North Carolina the high school students are looking to roam.  Some colleges, especially the highly competitive ones, have an automatic "kick-out" of candidates from non-accredited schools...one way to keep the numbers manageable.  Will they go back and make an exception for Wake County students?  I don't know, but if I had a child graduating in the next year or so, I wouldn't want to count on it.

Furthermore, there are some programs, loans, internships, and scholarships that have legal requirements that students graduate from accredited schools (sometimes with exceptions for homeschoolers).  They don't have any choice about it--Wake County students will not be eligible for those.  So, sure, if you have a child who graduates from Wake County, is only interested in going to a North Carolina college, and doesn't need these restricted loans or scholarships, whether the schools are accredited or not probably doesn't make that much difference.  But I think there are a lot of North Carolina high schoolers who don't fit into that category.

2.  AdvancED is NOT Your Enemy; They Could Even Turn Out to Be Your Best Friend

AdvancED is not reviewing the operation to come in and tell the Board what to do or to tell them how to assign students to schools.  AdvancED is supposed to be like a mediator or arbitrator; someone from the outside who can look at the issues with an impartial eye and give a ruling on which side is right.  For months now, the NAACP, leading the charge for many other critics, has charged that the Board acted against its own established procedures and agreed to a policy that will lead to racially discriminatory education.  The Board responded that they followed the correct procedures and have their arguments about how the new school assignments will benefit all students in the county.  The NAACP has one set of statistics backing up their side; the Board has another set backing up their contentions.  Whose figures are right?  Were procedures followed or not?  The latter question, at least, seems like there should be a simple yes or no answer to it.  But we have been given no answer, nor even a suggestion of how we are going to achieve such an answer; instead, we have month after month of each side arguing over the same points and making no headway in proving their points.

Enter AdvancED.   THAT is their job--to answer that question (among others).  If the Board REALLY believes they have followed the appropriate procedures, and they REALLY believe their statistics are more valid than the ones of their critics, they should welcome AdvancED to come and tell the public, The Board is right, they did things properly, and their figures are appropriate.   If AdvancED backed up their decision, that would take a lot of the wind out of the sails of the critics.  Maybe we could even move on and get something accomplished.  However, as I stated in an earlier post, this is not the first time that the Board majority acts like people outside their own ranks are out to get them.

3. Guess What?  You're Going to Have to Answer those Questions Even If You Drop Your Accreditation

Let us not forget that this fight with AdvancED is not the only regulatory problem the Board has on their plate.  The U.S. Education Department's Office of Civil Rights has not just one, but TWO, investigations of Wake County pending--one for racial discrimination, another for sexual discrimination (in interscholastic sports).   And while you can chose to drop your accreditation rather than answer those pesky questions from AdvancED, you can't just opt out of a Civil Right discrimination suit brought by the US government....a suit that will be bound to ask all those same questions and MORE.

This is where Secretary Duncan's letter is so significant.  As I've said before, I grew up in the Washington DC area, so I am fluent in DC-ese.  Therefore, allow me to translate this letter.  This letter is a warning to Wake County not to try to blow off and bluster through these discrimination complaints.  There is NO WAY Secretary Duncan would mention Wake County in that context without someone in his office having checked into the case and decided that there were legitimate reasons for concern that the system was racially discriminating.

So the Board can stick their heads in the sand if they want and force AdvancED to leave--at the expense of Wake County graduates.  But you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be at least an investigation, if not a lawsuit, coming from the federal Office of Civil Rights.  And refusing to cooperate with AdvancED will make the suits in DC even more suspicious that there is something rotten in the county of Wake.

The best thing the Board could do for the schools, the public, and particularly for ITSELF is to get out of its own way and cooperate with AdvancED.  But will it?  As my Magic 8 Ball says, "Cannot predict now."

PS--

On a happier and less complicated note--today is my son's 12th birthday!  Happy Birthday to Him!  But it makes me kind of sad to think that this is the last year before he turns into a teenager...

Applications to Be a 2011 JASON National Argonaut Due February 28

The JASON Project, a science, math, and engineering education program geared to middle schoolers that I've mentioned before in my blog for their fantastic curricular resources, is accepting applications for students who want to be 2011 JASON National Argonauts.  In this highly competitive program, students spend up to 10 days in the summer working in the field with professional scientists investigating some real topic in oceanography.  The rest of the year, they work with The JASON Project through speaking engagements, podcasts, posts on forums, and such.  All travel, equipment, food and boarding, and other expenses of participating (and the field experiences are international) are paid by JASON.

To be eligible, students must be 14 or 15 by June 1, 2011.  However, if you have younger students who may want to apply in the future, I suggest you check out the application now.  Students have to show great promise in math or science, as well as demonstrating a good academic and community service background.    However, they are also looking for students to have some physical skills, including swimming, snorkling, diving, rock climbing, and the like.  So if you are serious about applying for this program, you could spend the time until you are old enough working on some of those experiences to help you be a more competitive candidate.

The information about applying is on the JASON website (you will have to create an account in order to access it, I believe).  You can also address additional questions to argo@jason.org.  The application deadline is February 28, 2011.

Good luck to anyone who applies.  Make you that you let us know if you make it!