Moving Beyond "Rote Learning"
Comments on teaching with activities - teaching in courses like 0332, 0385, 0365, and 0455
Portions of the handout with links:
4. How do we inspire students to be willing to be somewhat uncomfortable?
My answer: I think it is very useful to have them read "How to Grow Your Intelligence" and do some activity based on it. http://www.edweek.org/media/youcangrowyourintelligence.pdf
Here is a slide show and video that address the same thing:
http://prezi.com/mgajqkyb18cj/malleable-intelligence/ || http://youtu.be/WtKJrB5rOKs
And then follow that up with consistently using language that praises working hard and noticing and then using good strategies and NOT praising them for being talented or smart. See strategies for getting students thinking about this in the last two pages of this: http://teachingasleadership.org/sites/default/files/How_To/INV/I-1/I-1_Teach_Malleable_Intelligence.pdf
Look for other ideas and resources by searching on Malleable Intelligence.
6. Why is math required for all students?
My answer: Part of the reason is "quantitative literacy." Another important part is that students learn to do careful, exact work when that is needed. Consider these ideas:
"Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man." – from the essay Of Studies by Francis Bacon.
"Written speech is more difficult than oral speech to the same degree that algebra is more difficult than arithmetic." - from Collected Works of L. S. Vygotsky, Volume 1, page 203.
(If you read from this, you'll also see his ideas of why collaboration is such a vital part of students' extending their consciousness of what they know.)
Vygotsky was a Russian contemporary of Piaget, whose writings weren't translated into English until the 1960's. A phrase associated with his ideas is "zone of proximal development" where the similar phrase for Piaget is "stages of development." So the "scaffolding" that we talk about in designing activities is very much in tune with Vygotsky's thought.