Hmm, so with your total curricular freedom to show kids the true beauty of real mathematics, university math courses must be the best taught and most loved math classes that kids have to take and not total wastelands of learning that everyone hates because their professors just endlessly lecture.
Wait, seriously? You guys are still lecturing?
Go on. Tell me more about the crisis of k12 math education.
(See here, here, here, wherever else math professors roam.)
As a dropout math phd currently teaching math at a high school, I constantly am disappointed in the explanations and type of assignments given to students. I think the 2nd article has the most valid criticism. Students are forced to learn so much they resort to memorizing without understanding.
ReplyDeleteAs for the comment about still lecturing, I think it is unavoidable to some extent since so much material has to be covered in such a short time and going through the techniques used in the proofs is the skill that needs to be improved. I dunno.
I agree that the poor teaching at the university level is probably unavoidable, or at least that the deck is stacked against good teaching. Professors are just responding to the expectations of their environments.
DeleteStill, there's a certain amount of chutzpah necessary to start writing articles about the dire state of math education when you're teaching the way that university math is usually taught.