Exit Slip #2 - A response to Jo Boaler

What surprised me most about Jo Boaler's lecture was centered around the idea of one-dimensional mathematics, and how my entire mathematical upbringing was through this system. Coming into this program, all of my previous teachers had instilled in me that the idea of 'how to teach' was through chalk & talk -- the teacher would write notes on the board, we would copy, and then if there's time we would do some practice problems. After listening to Boaler's lecture however, I can see how this is an outdated and instrumental way of teaching. Connecting her lecture to previous readings, one-dimensional teaching is almost a precursor for instrumental understanding in a student. One controversy brought up during our group discussion however was the idea of implementation of a multi-dimensional teaching style and some of it's limitations. 

Although the multi-dimensional teaching style is an engaging way to immerse students into the material, our group had questions on how to engage a student into 'buying in'. In the video, Boaler mentions how some students have a 'fixed mindset', an otherwise preconceived notion that they are inherently bad at math. I would wonder, if I had a student in my class who had a fixed mindset, how might my approach of a multi-dimensional teaching style clash with his learning. In our previous readings, some students struggle with relational understanding if they are used to learning in a instrumental way; I can see some parallels between a student being taught one-dimensional all their lives and then being thrust into a multi-dimensional class being difficult. 

Another challenge our group thought of was how as high school teachers, we are starting a little behind on how a student may have been taught before, and may have to push back against a fixed mindset. If a student had a traumatic or negative experience at a young age that gave them the idea that they're inherently bad at math, how might us as teachers break them out of their shell and have them fully believe in a growth mindset? It's too bad we aren't able to work with students from when they first start learning math all the way up to their senior years of high school! I wonder how their attitudes towards math would change 

I found the video to be extremely thought provoking and unravels an area of mathematical teaching that is prehistoric and outdated. Hopefully when I move into a classroom I am able to find ways to implement a multi-dimensional style of teaching as well as instill the belief growth mindset belief in all my students.