Session Information
24 SES 03, Math for All: Evidence-Based Learning for the 21st Century
Symposium
Contribution
School mathematics curricula are usually dominated by a focus on skills and techniques. To many students, mathematics is something you do, rather than something you think about, imagine, argue, or feel (Seah, Andersson, Bishop & Clark, in press). Mathematical values (Bishop, 1988) such as mystery, openness, empirical investigation, and networking are rarely present in mathematics education contexts, that is at least not from almost 800 Swedish students’ perspective (Österling & Andersson, 2015). These students answered “knowing the times tables” as most important for learning mathematics. Hence, their experiences indicate that if they know the skills, i.e. the times tables, everything is well in math class. In other words, control and rationalism are values strongly delivered and emphasised in their experience of mathematics education. A qualitative study (Andersson, 2011) found that students who narrated themselves with identities as math haters, or talk about exclusive identities instead reported inclusive identities when tasks were connected to their personal interests and/or present societal topics (Seah & Andersson, 2013). The mathematical values experienced through these projects were openness and progress. In this symposium, we problematize the way mathematics curriculum presents mathematics learning and ask if a focus on values, instead of techniques and skill drills in mathematics could support a higher number of students to experience inclusiveness. We suggest that the curriculum most of us are used to, with its focus on the acquisition of skills and the application of these skills, invariably fosters a sense of competition and haves-and-have-not amongst students. Assessments reward students who are proficient in such skills and their application, further emphasising the need for students to work hard to 'get it'. The necessarily small number of achievers get to experience a sense of accomplishment while the majority are left to feel inadequate and defeated, and thus excluded. On the other hand, a mathematics curriculum based on values and valuing would emphasise the learning of particular attributes of the discipline. Every student has the choice to decide to be enculturated into the valuing of these attributes; nobody needs to feel excluded against his/her own will. And it is this choice or agency (c.f. Andersson, Meaney & Valero, 2015) that individual students have which can make them feel that they are inclusive in mathematics learning processes.
References
Andersson, A. (2011). Engagement in Education: Identity Narratives and Agency in the Contexts of Mathematics Education. Published doctoral thesis. Aalborg: Aalborg University, Uniprint. Andersson, A., Meaney, T., & Valero, P. (2015). “I Am [not Always] a Math-hater”: Students’ (dis)engagement in Mathematics Education. Educational Studies in Mathematics. DOI: 10.1007/s10649-015-9617-z Bishop, A.J. (1988). Mathematical enculturation: A cultural perspective on mathematics education. Dordrecht, Holland: Kluwer (Springer). Seah, W.T., Andersson, A., Bishop, A., & Clarkson, P. (in press). What would the mathematics curriculum look like if instead of concepts and techniques, values were the focus? For the Learning of Mathematics. Seah, W.T., & Andersson, A. (2015). Valuing diversity in mathematics pedagogy through the volitional nature and alignment of values. In A. Bishop, H. Tan & T. Barkatsas (Eds.), Diversity in mathematics education: Towards inclusive practices (pp. 167-184). Switzerland: Springer. Österling, L., & Andersson, A. (2015) Mathematical Values and Fostering. In S. Mukhopadhyay & B. Greer (Eds.), Proceedings of the 8th Mathematics Education and Society Conference. USA: Portland State University.
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