Wednesday, March 30, 2011

What does a mathematics learner look like?

Today my Teaching and Learning Middle Grades Mathematics course ends a unit on learning mathematics. This follows a unit on doing mathematics. At the beginning of this unit, we took a simile survey that asked respondents to complete the following:


Ideally, a mathematics learner is like a(n):
a. Inventor
b. Sponge
c. Mechanic
d. Computer
e. Reporter
f. Explorer
  • Choose the simile that you believe best describes a mathematics learner and explain your choice.
  • Choose the simile that does the worst job of describing a mathematics learner and explain your choice.
  • Is there another simile that does a better job than these of describing a mathematics learner? If there is, then what is it and what makes it better than these?


This survey is based on an instrument I used in my doctoral research to measure beliefs about doing, learning, and teaching mathematics.

How would you complete this simile survey?

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