Comments on: Weinberg: Summer reading for teachers

By: Steven Weinberg

Steven Weinberg — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 07:10:42 +0000

Toodles, If any part of my post discouraged teachers from being innovative or trying new techniques, it was not meant to do so. Neither Willingham nor I would want that. I tried new techniques and approaches in every one of my 40 years with the district, and Willingham devotes his entire final chapter to helping teachers make use of cognitive science to effectively change and improve their teaching.
Recognizing the short-comings of some approaches makes you a critical thinker, not someone who excuses ineptitude.

Debora, I’m not sure how Willingham would answer your post. I searched the web trying to find more details about his view of gifted students, and I thought I had found a good link until I read it and found it was my posting and your comment.

Let’s Get Real and Hot R, thank you for your comments.

By: Debora

Debora — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 15:54:48 +0000

Steven:

I too, read the book and found it interesting. As a parent of a gifted, soon-to-be fifth grade daughter (math and science, her specific gifts), I believe the book speaks to the mainstream students in the class. For those teachers that ask my daughter to think like a mathematician or scientist they would actually get high results from her. Perhaps not in the class that day because they have not been allowed to use the classroom computers except to take reading tests.

My daughter would have come home and looked up the words, then look up famous mathematicians and scientists she did not already know. I know this to be fact because she chose to think like an Aztec when thinking about mathematicians. It didn’t earn her points with the teacher, but she made an argument that they had mastered mathematical theories in a complex and interesting way.

My point is that yes, many students will not automatically seek information and intellectual rigor on their own. However, my daughter thrives in environments where she is asked to think and “feel” outside her knowledge base. She is usually not asked to work to her capacity very often in school.

By: toodles

toodles — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 08:56:31 +0000

I think the sad part is that this post excuses teachers from being innovative and trying new techniques / pedagogy in the classroom, and rather, excusing ineptitude or lack of performance / effort on their part by saying… “that research is flawed, forget it.”

Disclaimer: 5 year HS math teacher

By: Hot R

Hot R — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 02:49:33 +0000

I will check it out. Thank you Steven. Although if I read a book that validates my opinions I normally think – “Why didn’t I write that?”

By: Let's Get Real

Let's Get Real — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 22:57:13 +0000

Thanks for the suggestion and the review!