One of the featured TED Radio Hour presenters of the March 18 episode, Don’t Fear Math, is Dan Finkel. He has five principles for teaching math to children (his principles begin at 8:35, but don’t miss the first two minutes of the podcast featuring a recording of a real 911 call for math help in Lafayette, Indiana).
I’ve been giving a lot of thought to Finkel’s second principle: students need time to struggle. His point is that absent the time for contemplation and the struggle of trial and error, experimentation, and deduction – genuine learning doesn’t take place. He notes that too many students have been conditioned to think that if they cannot solve a math problem in 30 seconds, they are simply not math-minded and give up rather than persevere in their struggle to find the solution.
Perhaps more than any other subject, math requires grit to succeed. What do you think?