Re(2): [Maths-Education] Money Counts

[Laurinda Brown]

I have been asked by one individual for more information on this book - 
it is full of the sort of challenges Mark talks about and I found that 
I could use a lot of the ideas which did motivate the students I work 
with as well as being a good read. Thought I'd send it to the list in 
response to Mark's thoughts - the important thing is finding something 
in our own lives and teaching that actually works which is one reason 
Mark's story is so strong - it worked for him - what works in a 
middle-class heartland might be different and for a different person.

Thanks all for the discussion. Laurinda



Innumeracy - mathematical illiteracy and its consequences - John Allen 
Paulos ISBN 0 14 01.2255 9 - Penguin books for us, 1988. Try Amazon - 
there are now later books but this first one has some really arresting 
problems which I have used with students as appropriate - eg how fast 
does your hair grow - in km/per/hr. Estimate how much blood there is in 
the world and give a visual representation of it. Nice chapter on 
Statistics, Trade-offs and society. It's also a book which some 
students get a lot out of reading themselves. Quite a motivator.

Hope this is of some use,

Laurinda


On Thu, 09 Nov 2000 13:13:13 +0000 "Mark S. BOYLAN(EDS)" 
<M.S.Boylan@shu.ac.uk> wrote:

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> I would like to make the following points on the debate around money
> counts in response to John Turan and Laurinda Brown.
> 
> I believe that the mathematics curriculum is already ideologically driven
> both in terms of the content of the curriculum and the way that it is
> commonly taught.
> Our choices about what to teach, in what way and how to teach are always
> choices of value. I think that Peter Gates declaration of his political
> position as a socialist is both honest and makes transparent his purposes
> in trying to influence the mathematics curriculum. Personally. I find it
> hard to put labels on myself nowadays but for me a central concern is
> empowering students to udnerstand the ecological, economic and social
> forces that mean our current ways of living in the rich nations are
> unsusatinable. When people do not say where they are coming form
> politically I get mistrustful.
> 
> Too often mathematics education is seen as neutral in terms of value. So
> we teach children about large numbers, put standard form in the text books
> and curriculum but often this is done in neutral contexts and thorugh
> repetitive exercises that are very boring. There are an implicit values in
> doing this - mathematics as alien and pointless to the vast majority of
> students. How about allowing our students to explore their relationship to
> the world through number. To realise how incredibly big they are in
> relation to the number of cells in their bodies and how incredibly small
> they are in relation to the abundance of life on our planet. How about
> exploring the relative size of wealth people own in the world. If Bill
> Gates' height was proportional to his height how much bigger would he be
> than people in the local community or a child sleeping on the streets in
> Sao Paulo. 
> 
> Of course many teachers are already doing this sort of work. I remember
> how a class of low attaining, disaffected working class students I taught
> came alive when we discussed how much the Director of Direct Line
> Insurance and engaged with the intellectual challenge of working our just
> how many years their low paid mothers and fathers needed to work to earn
> the equivalent of one days pay. "I'm gonna go home and tell my Da' about
> this" one said. This may have been the first time he had wanted to talk to
> his father about what he did at school.
> 
> I am sympathetic to Laurinda's remarks. Not least because I feel strongly
> that when students have the experience of 'dreaming' mathematical worlds
> into existence for themselves it can help to give the confidence to try to
> create similar qualities of beauty, wonder, suprise, order, chaos, rhythm
> and pattern in other areas of thier lives.
> 
> But given the fact that the Financial Services Industry wants to influence
> what is taught in schools surely the main issue is do we want to provide
> an alternative perspective which at least gives the possbility of students
> making their own minds up. If we don't then the only voice that will be
> heard is the corporate voice.
> 
> Mark Boylan
> School of Education
> Sheffield Hallam University
> College House
> Sheffield
> S10 2BP
> Tel 0114 2254398
> e-mail m.s.boylan@shu.ac.uk
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> >My specific concrn in comenting on
> >"Money Counts" was that it could easily become ideologically driven,
> >rather
> >than mathematically driven, and not provide that "intellectually engaging
> >context" which I believe is important
> 
> 
> 
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----------------------
Laurinda Brown
Laurinda.Brown@bristol.ac.uk

0117-9287019