Comments on: Things are Looking Up http://mathmojo.com/chronicles/2008/06/27/why-teachers-cant-teach-math/ The Official Blog of MathMojo.com - helping public school, homeschooling, unschooling students, parents, teachers and adults learn math with easy and effective methods. Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:45:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Metric Conversion http://mathmojo.com/chronicles/2008/06/27/why-teachers-cant-teach-math/comment-page-1/#comment-96155 Metric Conversion Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:30:04 +0000 http://mathmojo.com/chronicles/?p=217#comment-96155 That was a great post. I will have to bookmark this site so I can read more later. That was a great post. I will have to bookmark this site so I can read more later.

]]> By: polymath http://mathmojo.com/chronicles/2008/06/27/why-teachers-cant-teach-math/comment-page-1/#comment-90436 polymath Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:49:42 +0000 http://mathmojo.com/chronicles/?p=217#comment-90436 I agree that it is a scandal when people teaching math do not understand the basics of math themselves. But you have to be careful to make a distinction: the people who don't take enough basic math courses are not math teachers specifically; they are grade school teachers who teach all subjects including math. This is the level at which understanding the mechanics of multiplication or division is so important for the teacher. By the time the students make it to 12 or 13 years old (middle school in the U.S.), the specialized math teachers for the most part do understand significantly more math. There are some bad apples in that bunch too, I will admit, but it's a little disingenuous to say that math teachers don't understand the distributive property and how it applies to longhand multiplication. <strong><em>Professor Homunculus sez:</em></strong> Excellent point! Thanks for bringing it up. That certainly needs bearing in mind. Your observation is much appreciated. Thanks for keeping MathMojo better informed. I agree that it is a scandal when people teaching math do not understand the basics of math themselves. But you have to be careful to make a distinction: the people who don’t take enough basic math courses are not math teachers specifically; they are grade school teachers who teach all subjects including math. This is the level at which understanding the mechanics of multiplication or division is so important for the teacher. By the time the students make it to 12 or 13 years old (middle school in the U.S.), the specialized math teachers for the most part do understand significantly more math. There are some bad apples in that bunch too, I will admit, but it’s a little disingenuous to say that math teachers don’t understand the distributive property and how it applies to longhand multiplication.

Professor Homunculus sez:

Excellent point! Thanks for bringing it up. That certainly needs bearing in mind. Your observation is much appreciated. Thanks for keeping MathMojo better informed.

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