-> "Rather, the development of algebraic reasoning
-> needs to begin in the
-> early grades.  It should be interwoven with the learning of other
-> mathematics and should continue through the school years as an
-> integral part of the K-12 math curriculum."
-> Hmmm, a remake of "New Math"??
It does sound much like it, doesn't it?
Was the New Math all bad, IYO?
I am a product of that curriculum. I thought it was fine. Of course,
I haven't tried teaching it, and I have never taught elementary aged
kids.
I know of one frequent participant in the k12.ed.math newsgroup on the
Internet, a professor of Statistics from Purdue University. He is
extremely opinionated and very critical of educators and the ed system.
He has said many times before in that forum, that the reason the New
Math movement didn't succeed was because the teachers were not well
enough educated (which seems to make sense to me, but having been a
child at that time I cannot really add my own experiences to the
analysis). Of course, this Stat Prof goes even further, and claims that
when it was attempted to teach the teachers the "new math", they could
not learn it. (He really loves to make jabs at teachers.)
As a high school algebra teacher, it does make sense to me that students
should be exposed to algebraic types of thought and convention before
reaching the high school algebra course. Much like the discussion here
on young children being exposed to language from birth, and how this
exposure (or lack of it) can affect how easily and well they will learn
to read, I think that kids who are exposed to algebraic methods before
high school algebra will transition into algebra much more easily.
As it stands now, there are many kids who first meet up with algebraic
thought in their high school algebra course, having had little
experience with these ways of thinking beforehand. All of a sudden the
teacher expects them to instantly be able to pick up this new way of
doing things. Some kids handle this quite easily, but many do not.
Most foreign nations, such as Japan and Germany (the infamous, oft-cited
examples) have a gradual transition into algebra which begins in the
elementary grades. As I understand it, they are able to have a much
larger portion of their student population successfully learn algebra.
Sheila
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