[Maths-Education] Re: ICT in mathematics

[dylanwiliam at mac.com]

Of course this is the age old problem of "transfer" in psychology. What is undoubtedly true but rarely acknowledged explicitly is that as teachers we never care about our students' ability to do what we have taught them. If I teach students to add two fractions, I do not care about whether they can add those two fractions—of course they can; I have just shown them how to do it. What I care about is whether they can add a different pair of fractions. From a situated learning perspective, it seems to me that the issue is the extent to which students become attuned to the constraints and affordances present in the learning environment, and whether those constraints and affordances are present in other environments in which the student is likely to find herself.

Dylan Wiliam


On 9 Mar 2011, at 08:59, Alexandre Borovik wrote:

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> On 08/03/2011 14:36, Tandi Clausen-May wrote:
>> If the assessment required pupils to use Geogebra or Autograph to do some
>> mathematics then they would probably be more successful if they had learnt
>> some mathematics using these tools, so ICT would have 'a positive impact on
>> attainment in mathematics'.  But the assessments do not require this, so the
>> evidence is hard to find.
> 
> I dare to suggest that if a student needs particular software (say, Autograph) to answer a mathematical question, this means that he or she has learnt Autograph, not mathematics. Also, why not accept that if "the evidence is hard to find" then perhaps it does not exist?
> 
> IMHO, the ability to do and to communicate mathematics should not depend on the medium of communication. If it is dependent than something is wrong it the way students are taught.
> 
> Alexandre
> 
> -- 
> Professor Alexandre Borovik * University of Manchester
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