Teachers need to ask every student in the class one basic question right from the offset:
- Are you more interested in things or are you more interested in people?
Once you’ve separated the students into these two camps you can tailor the content to match the interest much better. You’re probably going to have to tunnel down some more into their interests and get creative to really engage them but in my opinion this is the most bang for your buck question that teachers should be using to tailor their mathematics education to the individual student.
Forcing a group of kids to not only rote learn formulas but also to rote learn formulas to solve problems that have no relevance to any of their interests in real life is the reason mathematics is so hated by so many people. Creating problems about “how many sweets can Gary buy if…” is such a poor attempt at making it interesting to kids it’s actually insulting. Educators need to start putting some proper effort in and stop treating kids like they’re robots.
- Are you more interested in things or are you more interested in people?
Once you’ve separated the students into these two camps you can tailor the content to match the interest much better. You’re probably going to have to tunnel down some more into their interests and get creative to really engage them but in my opinion this is the most bang for your buck question that teachers should be using to tailor their mathematics education to the individual student.
Forcing a group of kids to not only rote learn formulas but also to rote learn formulas to solve problems that have no relevance to any of their interests in real life is the reason mathematics is so hated by so many people. Creating problems about “how many sweets can Gary buy if…” is such a poor attempt at making it interesting to kids it’s actually insulting. Educators need to start putting some proper effort in and stop treating kids like they’re robots.