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on September 10, 2020

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Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day... Infinite Series

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Shifting from Grading to Learning

From a student perspective, I have rarely been motivated by grading. This is in part because I found my own public school generally unchallenging, which meant that I was rarely required to put in significant effort to receive a good grade. Thus, the only reason to put effort in was out of a sense of intrinsic motivation. I don't say this to boast, but rather offer it as an observation of how a variety in student ability might actually lead to further stratification, since skilled students have more freedom to develop intrinsic motivations. I definitely did resonate with the assertion made by Cameron and Pierce that expected task contingent rewards have a negative impact on motivation, at least for me personally. That system of marking, to me, says that there is no difference between excellent work and merely satisfactory performance. One might argue that giving no grades at all is the same, but I think there is an intentionality there to replace grades with a more internaliz...

The Grammar of Animacy in Mathematics

What a powerful idea, the living force all around us. The initial description of sitting peacefully in nature is one that resonates deeply with me as someone who grew up camping in the wilderness of rural Ontario (and indeed the traditional territory of the Algonkin and Anishnaabe peoples). I agree so strongly with Andy's observation that English is a language of othering. I think sometimes mathematical language can seem similar, when it is taught in an instrumental way. As we so often discuss in this class and others, they key element of a math class to me is to think mathematically. I might better name it "seeing" mathematically. I think of myself as being fortunate to be able to look at the world through the eyes of someone who has an understanding of modern sciences and mathematics, to be able to understand the reasons behind my observations. Math can be empowering and transformational in the way that it allows us to see beauty in the world, but it can also be distan...

On "Reflective Teaching"

There is some irony in an article which decries the dichotomies of "open or traditional" and "student-centred or subject-centred" but then centres its thesis around the importance of being a reflective teacher and not a routine one. We are all in some things reflective and in others unreflective. I think that the argument for being a reflective teacher as much as one can is close to self-evident. I can't imagine a teacher suggesting that it would be better practice to stick blindly to one mode of being without ever questioning its assumptions. The tricky thing, as of course Grant and Zeichner address, is how easily we fall into routines. While I (again) generally agreed with the emphasis on being open-minded and reflective, I think that it is a rather challenging thing to ask of a new teacher. Grant and Zeichner describe being a new teacher in a school and having some duty to question the traditions and regular functioning of that system. Yes, of course that dut...

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