Posts Tagged ‘mathematics’
Should mathematics teachers tell the truth?
Posted by: Gary Ernest Davis on: April 22, 2011
Adults do not always tell the truth to children. It’s common to let children believe there is a tooth fairy, that Father Christmas brings presents at Christmas time, or that a Golem defended the Jews in Prague. Are there similar tales that mathematics teachers tell children? Does mathematics have fibs, lies, and myths? I will […]
What math teachers should know about memory, 2: working memory
Posted by: Gary Ernest Davis on: April 21, 2011
Mathematics teachers commonly complain that their students do not memorize facts, definitions and formulas. In a previous post I described Hermann Ebbinghaus’s experiments on rote memorization, and his finding that memorization of nonsense syllables decays exponentially. What we teachers of mathematics want is for students to recall, at least for the very next class, what […]
