Siegel: Change in teaching strategy would lead to more success in math, STEM

109

Murray Siegel

There is an ever-growing need for Americans with college degrees in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) disciplines and most efforts to meet this need involve enticing high school and/or middle school students to consider a STEM career.

To date, these efforts have not been fruitful. What, you may ask, can be done differently? You must understand that a significant block to students pursuing a STEM education is their lack of ability or confidence in mathematics, which can be traced to their elementary school education.

Most elementary school teachers and administrators are focused on language arts. They teach science and social studies as well as language arts through reading and writing. They believe the best environment for students is found in a heterogeneous classroom (where students of all abilities are blended together).

This works fine in social studies and science since these subjects are not cumulative. If you have difficulties with the study of birds, you may still be successful in the study of fish. If you did not quite understand your study of Africa, that would not stop you from being successful in an investigation of Europe.

Unlike these subjects, mathematics is cumulative.

If you cannot add whole numbers, you cannot multiply whole numbers, and you certainly cannot add fractions. A typical fifth grade class might have students who still cannot successfully add or subtract whole numbers as well as students who can already compute with fractions and decimals, and a variety of students in between.

How does the teacher educate this diverse group of students? There are those who call for individualized instruction, but I have yet to see this accomplished in a real school (lab schools do not count). Typically the teacher teaches to the middle of the group. Those with weak skills never catch up and those with advanced abilities grow bored, and decide math is not for them. Is it any wonder that so few Americans can be successful in calculus?

Why not allow all students in a particular grade to have math at the same time, and set up the math classes by ability level? Select the teacher for each class based on his/her strengths in teaching math. The teacher who is responsible for the weakest students must believe that all students can learn and be supplied with a toolkit of resources for successful remediation.

Some complain the class with the weakest students will have all the discipline problems, but this is not so. Once students find success they will no longer feel the need to be disruptive. Of course, truly disruptive students should be dealt with so that they do not diminish the opportunity for others to learn. That is a subject for a future article.

Examine your neighborhood elementary school and see if math classes are grouped by ability or if the classes are a hodgepodge of varying skills.

Murray Siegel is a Maricopa resident. He has a Ph.D. in Math Ed and 42 years of teaching experience. He and his wife Sharon volunteer at Maricopa schools.