[RSCT] edutopia on value of teaching challenging math

[Monty Neill]

Nice piece on learning math, from Edutopia:
 Published on *Edutopia* (http://www.edutopia.org) full article at
http://www.edutopia.org/math-underachieving-mathnext-rutgers-newark -
comments worth reading also, esp the comment that this approach would work
in many subjects - but that it runs into class size issues (and of course
the domination of the tests in colonizing time, even tho one consequence of
this approach is test gains).

Home <http://www.edutopia.org/> > Arithmetic Underachievers Overcome
Frustration to Succeed
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Arithmetic Underachievers Overcome Frustration to Succeed By *molly*
Created *2009-08-31 16:46*
 [image: Boy scratching his head at a difficult math problem on a
chalkboard] Credit: Getty Images

New Jersey teachers have found a surprising way to keep students engaged and
successful: They let underachieving youngsters get frustrated by math.

While working with minority and low-income students at low-performing
schools in Newark for the past seven years, researchers at Rutgers
University have found that allowing students to struggle with challenging
math problems can lead to dramatically improved achievement and test scores.


"We've found there is a healthy amount of frustration that's productive;
there is a satisfaction after having struggled with it," says Roberta
Schorr, associate professor in Rutgers University at Newark's Urban
Education Department <http://edu.newark.rutgers.edu/RobertaSchorr.html> [1].
Her group has also found that, though conventional wisdom says certain
abilities are innate, a lot of kids' talents and abilities go unnoticed
unless they are effectively challenged; the key is to do it in a nurturing
environment.

"Most of the literature describes student engagement and motivation as
having to do with their attitudes about math -- whether they like it or
not," Schorr says. "That's different from the engagement we've found. When
students are working on conceptually complex problems in a supportive
environment, they do better. They report feeling frustrated, but also
satisfaction, pride and a willingness to work harder next time."

Former Newark middle school math teacher Debra Joseph-Charles says the
Rutgers training taught her to see her role as that of a guide. In her
classes, she assigned rich word problems, then gave students a few minutes
to work individually in a way that emphasized their strengths.

"If you are good at computations and you want to do it that way, you can,"
says Joseph-Charles, now a math coach in the school district. "If you are a
visual learner and you want to draw, you can. Or if you want to use
manipulatives, you can. You hear this rhetoric about there being this and
that type of learner, but no one really gives students the opportunity to
learn in different ways in the math classroom."

Using the Rutgers method of group learning, Joseph-Charles's students
organized themselves into groups so that each student could explain how she
arrived at an answer. The other students in the group gave constructive
criticism about the pros and cons of each approach. Each group then decided
which method was best and presented it to the class.

"Children who were failing are now quite successful," Joseph-Charles says of
her former math students. "They're solving problems in ways we didn't see as
a possibility but which were valid."

Naga Madhuri Philkhana, another former teacher turned math coach in Newark,
says the Rutgers approach gave her students a sense of accomplishment. "You
bring out their confidence by letting them have their own way of looking at
problems and sharing it in the classroom," she says.

After teachers like Joseph-Charles and Philkhana began applying the Rutgers
techniques in the classroom, students showed more interest in math, and the
math test scores at what were among the lowest-performing schools in the
state began to soar. (In comparison, the language arts scores often remained
the same or decreased.) Schorr was delighted but admits she was also
surprised at the rising scores and how they have continued to improve year
after year.

Since 2003, the average standardized math test scores among fourth graders
in Newark schools have risen from 45 percent to 79 percent. As a result of
its success, math teachers across New Jersey are now receiving professional
development in the Rutgers method through a federally funded series of
webinars called MathNext <http://www.mathnext.org/> [2].

Schorr and her colleagues at Rutgers, with the help of
MetroMath<http://www.metromath.org/>
[3] researchers in New York City, have begun identifying how and when
students appear to be most engaged in math so they can train teachers to
create and sustain that engagement. A number of their academic-journal
articles on the subject have been published, and more are forthcoming.

"Motivation is a key aspect of achievement that we often ignore in math;
it's the missing link," Schorr says. "We need to provide kids with
conceptually challenging math problems in an emotionally safe environment,
and the teacher plays a critical role in that. Kids can view frustration as
an opportunity for success instead of an indication of failure, but that
won't happen without teachers letting the students experience productive
struggles."
*Bernice Yeung* is a contributing editor for *Edutopia*.

-- 
Monty Neill, Ed.D
Deputy Director
FairTest
15 Court Sq, Ste 820
Boston, MA 02108
monty at fairtest.org
857-350-8207; fax 850-357-8209
www.fairtest.org
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