Ntroduction: I do agree that teachers should provide, and continue to provide, for students, instruction and structure in order to help them gain and grow in their “cognitive resources”.
Only after knowing what students imagine when they think about what mathematicians do (most of those are not positive images at all) I started to find better ways to make the world of mathematics accessible and understandable to students.” This kind of information can help us understand the learning gaps our students have and help us to determine the most effective way to close those gaps.
“I spent a lot of time then collecting small data, in and out of my classroom, to understand students’ own ideas about the mathematical and scientific worlds. Finish researcher, Pasi Sahlberg calls this small data. Instead, educators need opportunities for formative assessment involving students in establishing their learning goals and taking an active role in working toward those goals. “Just increasing standards and instructional rigor won’t reverse this epidemic.” Hammond pg. Unfortunately, the current approach to closing the achievement gap seems to be to set higher standards and increase high stakes testing. I believe establishing relationships and having a social-emotional connection is the basis for supporting struggling students to become independent learners.
