For many students, math is a skill they learn because they have to, but they are not always aware of the real-world applications. This is an issue with which the education world has continually struggled. On Friday, a professor spoke of a new solution at a lecture the Center for Science and Mathematics Education hosted.
Janine Remillard, a professor at Penn Graduate School of Education, has been working with the school districts of Philadelphia, Pa., to incorporate locally relevant information into the curriculum. Locally relevant means placing students at the center so teachers take into account the context of where and who they are teaching.
She thought of this when she realized teachers were taking too much time explaining the contextual problems about mountain elevation or scooter rentals on an island vacation to inner-city students, for example.
Remillard has worked with these school districts for a couple years, and they said they have seen a boost in student interest in math since the changes. These relevant math exercises involve finding angles in streets they live on or graphing graduation rates among local high schools.
Both teachers and students of math and science came to the lecture, and most came away with hope in this teaching strategy.
Elaine Tuft, a math professor at Utah Valley University, heard about this kind of teaching before and said she is ready for the change.
“It’s certainly doable but it’s not going to be easy,” she said. “It’s going to take a lot of time.”
Remillard made sure to address challenges as well, such as the time for teachers to develop curriculum and to work with their school to make sure they are still covering the core subjects.
“Districts around here have scripted curriculum, and teachers aren’t allowed to deviate,” said Sue Womack, a math professor at UVU.
It might be working in Philadelphia, but it will be some time before locally relevant teaching makes its way to Utah, Remillard said.
Some of the benefits involve boosting student interest and allowing teachers to learn more about their students, she said.
“[Students] are experts in their neighborhood. They know how to use the trolley system that goes through their neighborhood,” she said. “Using those kinds of situations allows teachers to leverage their expertise rather than always distancing them from what they know.”
By doing math that uses information they know, students can find purpose to their work and will be introduced in such a way that words and phrases such as “statistics” or “data analysis” won’t be so intimidating later on, Womack said.
“They see math as a useful tool rather than something that comes out of a book,” she said.
Even among those in attendance, context mattered. Attendees were asked to use their own problem-solving skills to come up with a ratio of number of basketball courts to the population. Depending on where people lived, responses differed.
Remillard proved her point, and students such as Logan Calder, a sophomore in mathematics, were interested in hearing more about this new type of teaching.
“I was inspired by how much kids really do use math without even thinking about it,” he said. “If you use context that they’re familiar with, they’ll be doing the math and not think it is math.”
Calder said teachers need to be engaged if they want their students to do the same, and having teachers understand their students’ lives will engage them.