Week 9 Discussion

CMESG40 Years – Edward Doolittle – Mathematics as medicine

This is an interesting read from Doolittle. I had a good laugh reading some of his jokes and stories (UFO abduction, the long fart by the old man, the Blackfoot creation story) and at the same time got me thinking how we can pull mathematics into indigenous culture (p. 127). It was intriguing to see how he explained mathematics into indigenous thought (p. 128)., that although mathematics is all about simplifying, analyzing and breaking down, Indigenous thought is all about developing and building up sophisticated complex responses to complex phenomena such as the weather, healing, and human behavior. The author in all his life had been searching for something he felt was missing in his life as an Indian. He realized how incompatible being an Indian and a mathematician was (p. 122). He finally found enlightenment after listening to some Indian elders at the Indian Health Careers Program. He finally became an indigenous person connecting deeply to his Indian root and mathematics.

The author made mention of ethnomathematics which according to him is an approach between indigenous thought and mathematics as well as reflective and respectful to indigenous tradition. He questioned the role of mathematics in non – indigenous culture. Throughout his writing, he portrays how Indigenous thoughts and mathematics are spiritually connected to one another (the Black Elk’s reference, Ramanujan and Blackfoot creation story, p. 129).

STOP 1

With reference to Black Elk and the Ramanujan story (p. 129), perhaps, mathematics is a spirit connected to one’s indigenous culture. It makes me wonder whether a person is naturally gifted and understanding math comes off easily.

STOP 2

The author on page 122, made mention of his identity as an Indian and being a mathematician in conflict with each other. I wonder why’s that? Can one’s identity affect his ability to do mathematics?

QUESTIONS

1.  Can a student be considered mathematically gifted?

2.  Relating to your own experience, can you connect a person’s mathematical ability to his indigenous culture?

Week 8 Discussion 

Competitive comparison and PISA bragging rights: sub-national uses of the OECD's PISA in Canada and the USA - Laura C. Engel & Matthew O. Frizzell

Generally, competitions are good in education, more specifically in subject areas like mathematics. Mathematics is a subject less adored by most students. Therefore, such international competitions like the PISA bring together unique ideas from all over the world and ensure that students have foundational understandings and skills. It also serves as a benchmark for on-going reform. As one provincial leader from Ontario quoted in the article:

“…PISA has indirect impacts along with other sources in informing education policies and programs…and provides a sound research base for reference”.

Despite the advantages PISA brings as the ‘bragging rights’ among states and ‘healthy state-to-state competition’ (p. 676), participants in Canada however, also reflected on some of the risks of increased international exposure if perhaps the results were not good (p. 673).

Stop 1

·         Is it important how a country or a school fares in a competition if it is considered as healthy and necessary for educational reforms?

Stop 2

·         My District Education Service organized math and science quizzes among schools within the district and it was highly competitive. I also held several interclass quizzes with my students in Science, Math, and English. Students enjoyed the competition and learned a lot from it in terms of academics and socially (how to handle defeat and try to work harder next time).

I was alarmed to know from the findings of the research that, ‘little has been done with the state-level results outside of the ‘a big splashy announcement when the results came out… little to no data analysis has been done other than the use of PISA for benchmarking purposes or rhetorical support for the validity of existing reforms’ (p. 678). I am wondering how PISA is organized the subsequent years without any analysis.

Question

·         How does your province or school prepare for PISA?