Weaknesses in education and students' beliefs on intelligence cause the United States to rank 28th in Mathematics education

Source: wisegeek.com

I will summarize the main ideas from each subheading and summarize the ePortfolio here. I will have an image to the right. I could have a survey at the end of this section to create interactivity as well as a form of personalization. The survey will also prompt the user to think about the topic at hand.
Questions:
Do you think people are naturally good or bad at Math? (Yes/No)
Do you think you are good at Math? (Very good/ Good/ neutral/ bad/ very bad)
Do you think intelligence is fixed or not? (Yes/No)
How often do you use mathematics outside of class? (Very Often, Often, Somewhat, Almost Never, Never)

If you believe that you are "naturally bad at math", then you are more likely to get lower math grades.

Actual Post:

Many students often say that they are simply bad at mathematics and no matter what they do that they just do not understand it. Research has shown that students who believe that they cannot improve their intelligence are more likely to perform poorly in school.

There are two modes of thought on intelligence described by the implicit theory of intelligence. The first mode of thought is that intelligence is fixed such as those students who believe they are naturally bad at math, which is known as the entity theory of intelligence. The second mode of thought is that intelligence is not fixed and can be improved, known as the incremental theory of intelligence.

A study showed, students that ascribe to the entity theory of intelligence are more likely to have a declining performance or grades that stay relatively the same in school. This result matches accurately with the theory because if they don't think they can do anything about their intelligence or grades, they will not do anything to change or improve their study habits. Conversely, students who are a part of the incremental theory of intelligence are more likely to have improving grades over time.

Wisely Wong, a Professor of Mathematics, says the following on why students struggle with mathematics "People give up too easy. Consider the analogy 'Why can this guy play the piano so well and I can't?' It's because he practices a lot and you don't. Math is a common subject that we all use, if music was the same, then there would be the same complaint. Think about your own talents, you practice so much and that's why you're good."

Students who believe the incremental theory of intelligence get better grades because they are more likely to attribute their errors to themselves. As Professor Wong stated, practice is all that is needed for mathematics. Therefore, a student who believes it is their fault for bad grades, then they know that they need to practice more in order to improve their grades.


Outline Stuff:

I found that the statement that I posted in Task 1 of "Some people believe that people are naturally good or bad at mathematics" relates heavily to a theory in developmental psychology. They theory is known as implicit theory of intelligence which basically says there are two modes of there when it comes to intelligence. Some people believe that intelligence is fixed, which is known as the entity theory of intelligence. People that believe that intelligence is not fixed and is something that can be built is known as the incremental theory of intelligence.

Furthermore, I found that research has been done on this theory and that it has been found that people who ascribe to the incremental theory of intelligence are more likely to be successful in school, while those that believe in the entity theory of intelligence are more likely to be less successful in school. I can create a line graph in order to show data obtained from this research so that people can see the change in time with academic success depending on which theory students ascribe to.

Video Interview: "Many student struggle with Math and believe that they just aren't a 'math person'. Why do you think so many struggle with math and do you think that there are 'math people'?"

**He did not want to do a video interview because he did not want any personal videos taken of him. He still answered the questions though. I am currently finding other people to interview today (Thursday).

His answer: 1)     I think it’s because people give up too easy consider the analogy why can this guy play the paino and we can’t. It’s because he practices a lot and he doesn’t. Math is a common subject that we all use, if music was the same, then there would be the same complaint. Think about your own talents, you practice so much and that’s why you’re good. It takes time but a lot of people give up early.

audio boom, record audio, and then take a picture.
Student interviews, 3 good interviews with insight. (3 different people)
College of education

Students struggle with synthesis, evaluation, and analysis questions and are unable to apply math to real-world applications

Outline Stuff

In this section I will address the strengths and weaknesses of students in the United States according to the PISA report. The reports says that students struggle with mathematical tasks of higher cognitive demands. I will an embedded graphic explaining the different levels of cognitive demands.
Finally, I will address the common complaint of "I'll never use this." because it is a common characteristic for students to fail to apply math to the real world. According to the report, 26% of 15 year olds were unable to reach a level of proficiency in life that would allow them to "participate effectively and productively in life."

Video Interview: "A common complaint among math students is that "I'll never use this again." How would you respond to a student?"

      His Answer: "     I would say you do use it a lot, but a lot of the time you don’t realize it’s being applied, and furthermore whether or not you explicitly use what you learn in class the general, doing a lot of these things help your thought process and helps you think clearer. You might not use the integral again, but your problem solving skills improve. Of course you might not ever use it again, but your brain works better.

Mathematics education is monkey see monkey do in America. 

Actual Stuff





Outline Stuff

In this section I will compare how math is taught in the United States versus in other countries. Although I am generalizing, many classrooms are taught by the teacher demonstrating and then the students mimicking which does not facilitate understanding. I will take some of the top countries according to the ranking in the previous section such as Singapore, Japan, and Finland and compare that to the United States' philosophies


I may focus more on why students struggle in the math education in the united States.
https://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/-solving-americas-mathematics-education-problem_085301336532.pdf
http://www2.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/mathpanel/report/final-report.pdf
http://hechingerreport.org/u-s-math-education-is-broken/

The United States stands far behind countries like Singapore, Hong Kong and Finland in Math and Science

Actual Post

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Outline stuff

In this section I will compare the United States to other parts of the world. First I will compare them in terms of ranking according to the Program for International Student Assessment.  I can create a data graphic here from the information provided.

Video Interview (It will be to the right of the text): I'll ask the first question of the interview with a math professor. "The United States is ranked 28th in mathematics and science education. Does this surprise you and what are your thoughts?"

His Answer: "That doesn’t me surprise because there is a lot of underdeveloped countries that strong of an education system at the same time there are a lot of developed countries where the education systems are a lot more developed than the United States."