Podcast: Cultivating Math Curiosity and Reasoning in Kids

I have a new podcast interview, and I think you’ll enjoy it!

Check out Learning Is Disruptable on your favorite podcast app, or listen on the website:

Go to the podcast ❱

Here’s an excerpt…

“I think the most important thing that we need to change…we need to radically change what our idea is of what it means to learn math.

“Our biggest failure, both in the classroom and in homeschool settings, is that we’ve given our children a totally wrong idea of what math is all about.

“In school, you get an assignment, you work the problems, the teacher grades your answer, the whole experience trains us in one idea that right answers are the goal. If you can produce a right answer, then you’re good at math. And if you don’t, then you’re a failure.

“But really, right answers are not what real math is all about. In real math, our goal is different. And right answers aren’t terribly important.

“Right answers are just a side effect. They happen naturally as we work toward our true goal, which is thinking, reasoning, making sense, building this web of interconnected concepts that we call understanding. The way that we see how numbers, shapes, and patterns relate to each other and why they behave the way they do.

“So no matter what curriculum we use, no matter where we teach math, in the classroom, in the homeschool, unschooling, whether we use a math curriculum at all, we need to make changes that de-emphasize those right answers and put the emphasis on our students’ thinking.”

We had a great discussion! Listen to the whole thing:

Go to the podcast ❱