Math Textbooks
How you respond to the examples given here -- as a teacher and as a former student
As a former student, I agree with the disconnect math textbooks seem to have with their readers treating math wholisitically as abstraction. I think math as being more personal because I care so deeply for it and hope to make myself more aware of this disconnect in choosing my resources (if I can) as a teacher. Already as a TC on practicum I've provided my own materials to be more personal with my students. For example, in my computing class I had students decrypt a message which they discovered to be the name of their school. In teaching the lesson, I showed them how to decrypt my name "Mr. Nguyen" and used this example in my instructions for their activity. Here is a screenshot:
I found that by doing so, students seemed much more engaged and every student solved the task. They knew that I was applying a personal approach linguistically in a discipline which is conventionally perceived to be robotic and stale.
What are your thoughts about the reasons for using/ not using textbooks, and the changing role of math textbooks in schools?
I think textbooks still have value in giving context to material and content objectives. They are also a source for inspiration and activities for teachers. However, many schools do not have these resources for students and what I have seen is the growing dependence on workbooks. Although I think these workbooks are great for practice, I've seen much greater enthusiasm from tutoring of self-made handouts and assignments. These resources I think are much more enticing to students as they are lighter to carry, have most of the information they need, contain ideas directly connected to class, and are formatted to the style of the class. Most students today also navigate to online resources to supplement their learning and minimal thought is giving to going into the textbook for help.
As a former student, I agree with the disconnect math textbooks seem to have with their readers treating math wholisitically as abstraction. I think math as being more personal because I care so deeply for it and hope to make myself more aware of this disconnect in choosing my resources (if I can) as a teacher. Already as a TC on practicum I've provided my own materials to be more personal with my students. For example, in my computing class I had students decrypt a message which they discovered to be the name of their school. In teaching the lesson, I showed them how to decrypt my name "Mr. Nguyen" and used this example in my instructions for their activity. Here is a screenshot:
I found that by doing so, students seemed much more engaged and every student solved the task. They knew that I was applying a personal approach linguistically in a discipline which is conventionally perceived to be robotic and stale.
What are your thoughts about the reasons for using/ not using textbooks, and the changing role of math textbooks in schools?
I think textbooks still have value in giving context to material and content objectives. They are also a source for inspiration and activities for teachers. However, many schools do not have these resources for students and what I have seen is the growing dependence on workbooks. Although I think these workbooks are great for practice, I've seen much greater enthusiasm from tutoring of self-made handouts and assignments. These resources I think are much more enticing to students as they are lighter to carry, have most of the information they need, contain ideas directly connected to class, and are formatted to the style of the class. Most students today also navigate to online resources to supplement their learning and minimal thought is giving to going into the textbook for help.
Great commentary, and so many interesting points here. Thank you Vincent! You are really considering teaching holistically -- everything from the weight of the things students need to carry, to their impressions of computer science and math, to your own relationship with mathematics. Wonderful!
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