Many believe mathematics can only be taught in a sequential and linear matter through the means of rote memorization. This means an educator delivers content matter, such as, formulas and equations directly while students passively listen. Gary Tsuruda, a former middle school math teacher, writes about how this might not be the best approach in the article Paradigm shift. While teaching math in a rote matter worked for some of his students, he found that he wasn’t reaching out to all of his student’s needs. Tsuruda decided to shift away from this traditional style of teaching mathematics, and take on a more constructivism approach. Douglas Clements and Michael Battista in the article Constructivist Learning and Teaching, describe what constructivism …show more content…
Teaching is more than delivering facts to students, it’s about developing a child to their full potential. I don’t want my students to memorize material for a test, then soon forget it, like I did growing up. This is not beneficial in the long run, students should know a math equation because they understand how to formulate it, not because they were told what the equation was. Because of this, I want to adopt a more constructivism approach to teaching math. I plan to be creative when it comes to math, and find ways where my students can construct their own learning and develop their own understanding behind the concepts of mathematics. I love the idea Tsuruda had of having students write reflections about their learning. I think this is a great way to gain insight on how his students learn, what they understand, and what they still need help on. I would like to use reflections in my math classroom one day because I believe it takes you into the student’s mind which will further help me as a teacher facilitate ways to build off the child’s knowledge in a way that is unique to their learning style. Overall, I believe constructivism is the best approach not only in math, but in every subject, because it focuses on the development of the whole child and creates life-long knowledge in an