FIGHTING MYSELF FOR MATH

Author(s): Carole Philip

Source: Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences , Winter 2008, Vol. 94, No. 4
(Winter 2008), pp. 79-93
Published by: Washington Academy of Sciences

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24536274

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 79

FIGHTING MYSELF FOR MATH

Carole Philip
Alice Deal Middle öcnooi, wasmngton, ul

In my journey to becoming a DC FAME Fellow, I had to fight

myself "tooth and nail." This is my second Master's degree, and I signed
on to this new and innovative program called DC FAME because I
wanted to improve the mathematics education of my students.
Additionally, Dr. Florence Fasanelli was mesmerizing as she talked
about the program that she had lovingly developed, and I knew that I
wanted to be part of it. I just was not prepared to accept that the way I
was going to help my students improve began with a deeper look at my
own learning. Dr. Fasanelli had to tell me that I was prejudiced against
myself - I needed to be like the Queen of England, who was "incapable
of prejudice."

At first I did not understand; however, as it became clearer to me

what she meant I began the journey of not fighting with myself. I gave in
to learning about - my learning! I learned to celebrate "ME" as the DC
FAME Fellow that I am, the way in which I learn, and how I could use
this learning to improve the mathematics education of my students.

To explain this, let us look at how I responded to a series of

questions. The first question involves looking outside myself and
observing my peers: 'How do we Fellows personally understand a
variety of ways to leam mathematics?' My answers begin with looking
at how I teach mathematics and analyzing my addiction to it as
compared to other Fellows. Do I teach using traditional methods? That
is, do I view "mathematical knowledge as a body of established facts
and techniques that are hierarchically organized and thus able to be
broken down and passed along by experts to novices" (Borasi, 1996)?
Do I look at learning as bits of knowledge gained by listening, observing
or memorizing? Is teaching to me just passing on the knowledge that I
know and explaining facts to the students and having them memorize
and practice my information? Do I teach according to what Raffaella
Borasi calls the inquiry method? She summarized it as follows:

• A view of mathematics as a humanistic discipline; that is,

the belief that mathematical knowledge is socially
constructed rather than deterministic, and is shaped by

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cultural and personal values like other products of human

activity.
• A view of knowledge more generally as constructed through
a process of inquiry where uncertainty, conflict and doubt
provide the motivation for the continuous search for a more
and more refined understanding of the world.
• A view of learning as a generative process of meaning
making, requiring both social interaction and personal
construction, and informed by context and purposes.
• A view of teaching as stimulating and supporting the
students' own inquiry and establishing a learning
environment conducive to such inquiry.

I was taught using the traditional method and was for many years
more comfortable with learning mathematics in that traditional mode.
My teachers drilled in that way and by observing what my teachers said
and did, I learned. Also, by gathering bits of information and working
toward making them connect in some way, I made sense of mathematics.
Sometimes I felt that it became an addiction to get those correct
solutions.

I also understood mathematics by working with my students

using the inquiry method. First I learned that my understanding of
mathematics is dependent on whether I listen to my students to get an
idea of what the student knows. Second, I understood that I have to ask
myself if the students have previous knowledge about the subject to
determine (a) if the student is learning anything new from me or (b) how
to help that student learn what I am trying to teach. Third, according to
Borasi (1996), "Since inquiry doesn't just happen" the teacher needs to
determine how to create a situation that will determine if the teacher or
the student is learning any mathematics by use of inquiry. Fourth, do I
understand that true learning is not held within myself, and that a student
must ultimately be responsible for her/his own learning and that a
student's confusion and errors are part of that learning and "construction
of meaning" (Borasi, 1996).

Last, I needed to determine how much mathematics I learn from

assessing and rewarding my students' learning, since teachers need to
"convey to students a clear message about what kind of learning process
and outcomes are really valued" (Borasi, 1996).

This variety of ways to leam mathematics gave me the direction I

needed to help my students. To see how other Fellows understand ways

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 81

to learn mathematics, I had to ask them how they learned. I was told
everything from "The teacher did problems and we looked at how they
were done and tried to do more," to "It had to have a rhythm or a pattern
and it had to make sense." Those comments were not far from what my
students would say, so I was able to relate to the many ways in which the
other DC FAME Fellows understood how to learn mathematics.

I used Borasi's inquiry approach to mathematics when I gave my

students the following problems and asked them to come up with a rule
that works for the subtraction of integers (no other instructions were
given).

7 - 9 = -2 -7 - 2 = -9 -7 - (-2) = -5
Student 1 wrote: If you subtract a negative from a p
then put the sign of the largest number on your answ
subtract a negative from a negative or positive from
answer is ..." (She wanted to talk more about her reaso
she was saying it she found something wrong).

Student 2 wrote: "If the signs are the same you

subtraction to addition. And change the sign of the secon
doing the opposite."

Student 3 wrote: "If the signs are the same you

subtraction to addition and the second number to the op
asked her to think about whether, if the signs are diffe
would still work. She was prevented from responding
rang.

Student 4 wrote: "You have to change the subtraction to addition

and put the sign of the smaller number on the answer." I asked him to
pick a few numbers to see if that always works. He found one situation
where it did not hold and wanted to complete this for homework.

My students reinforced for me that I should primarily ask

questions!

In each of my FAME classes, the instructors asked questions

differently. I learned that for me to understand how my students learn, I
need to ask "how" and "why" questions. Most importantly I must
understand how I learn mathematics and to do this I was asked to keep a
journal about my learning over the course of the three years. Initially I
did a poor job of keeping a journal, and counted heavily on my
classmates to write things down for me. Eventually I realized the

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82

importance of writing things down for myself. In this journey, then,

another question was raised: 'How do Fellows [Teachers] learn
mathematics by reflecting on what they have learned?'

"Reflection is the way in which people join current thought with

experience to improve subsequent thought or events." (Borst and Oonk
in their 2007 paper, "Reflection For Teaching: Nurturing and Noticing
Reflection In Practice-Based Professional Learning Experiences.") Their
intent is to encourage teachers to make a practice of reflecting on their
work. They also indicate that this fits with the views of the International
Commission on Mathematics Instruction (ICMI) Study that reflection is
a way in which teachers are able to leam from experiences and make the
connection between practice and knowledge.

The big question that Boerst and Oonk ask is "What are some ways in
which reflective practice can be defined in...mathematics teacher
education settings so that it can be nurtured, but also noticed and utilized
to foster professional growth?" Initially I was not a big fan of reflecting
and even less of journaling. However, as I progressed I realized that I do
reflect on a daily basis. For me reflection is not the formal act of writing
down my thoughts. Through my reflections, I make connections to how
math fits into the lives of my students and how I can explain to them the
uses for the math that they are learning. I habitually reflect on what
works for me during a lesson as well as those things that did not work.

Thinking back, I found that I did most of my reflecting in the

FAME Geometry course because geometry had been difficult for me. In
one of my geometry assignments I wrote several reflective comments to
myself. The assignment was:

Are two triangles congruent if the two triangles have congruent

corresponding sides? Look at plane, sphere, and hyperbolic planes.

Consider the sphere shown in Figure 1: On this sphere we see

MBC and M'B'C.

If we were to map the points A, B, and C to A'B'C we could

show that the two triangles have corresponding sides and angles
however, if we cut out AABC from the sphere, as shown in Figure 2, we
will still have a corresponding triangle around the surface whose angles
are now greater than 180 degrees. This shows that although we have tw
triangles on a sphere whose sides are corresponding, we cannot always
have side-side-side congruence. The next figure shows the secon
argument better than the first figure.

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 83

Figure 1

r —

Figure 2

Comment I: If I ever teach this stuff, students won't be able to see the
first figure too well.

Comment 2: If this gets shaded in the kids will see right away where the
A is.

Comment 3: The shaded version definitely shows that all the edges are

Comment 4: The figures in plane geometry are not necessarily drawn to

scale...(Big thing to remember Carole!!!!!!)
These comments were significant because they continually reminded me
that my drawings needed to be very clear and precise as I taught
geometry during that school year (although comment 2 is incorrect and I
know that now). Additionally, my students will benefit from reflecting
because they must make test corrections after each chapter test. The
students divide their papers in half and on the left side they redo the
problem correctly. On the right half, they think about the committed
error and write an explanation about where or why they made the error
and what they were thinking about to have made the error. The students
may not write, "I didn't know or I guessed." If they did not know, they
must explain what they now know that they did not know before. In
reflecting on their errors students are less likely to make them again. I
found that this has a tremendous impact on the retention of knowledge,

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and it creates a sense of ownership in the individual's learning. It also

makes my job as teacher easier because I do not have to re-teach so
much.

As the journey continued, there was another question: 'How do

Fellows [Teachers] Leam to Think Like Mathematicians and Does This
Matter?'

Thinking like a mathematician was not something to which I

subscribed. I have always believed that a mathematician was someone
who was extremely well versed in mathematics, knew, and understood
most if not all of mathematics. They were the people who created the
rules of mathematics and loved the beauty of all the abstraction. They
also taught in universities and worked in labs alongside scientists. The
job of a mathematician was to make the world a better and maybe more
complicated place. A math teacher, on the other hand, was someone who
taught the very basics of mathematics to children. Math teachers know
how to make things very concrete so young minds can understand those
basics that may lead them to higher levels of education and jobs.

I am not belittling what teachers do (it is the most important

profession in my mind) but I have never believed that I was in the same
league as a Mathematician. Then I became a DC FAME Fellow and my
professors wanted me to think like a mathematician. I had to fight
myself to rethink what a mathematician really does. My preconceived
notions were flawed, but not 'absolutely' wrong. One of the things that
most helped me change my thinking was a video featuring Dr. Fern
Hunt, produced by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics,
entitled "Thinking Like A Mathematician." Dr. Hunt said: "I might be
either doing some reading or I might be actually trying to figure
something out. There are a couple of long-term problems that I think
about." Dr. Hunt described what she did as creative thought. "It would
be the equivalent, maybe, of an artist sketching something or
improvisation, only it's based on some particular piece of mathematics,
and you're trying to extend it." The video showed Dr. Hunt working on a
project where she developed new equations for how light is scattered by
physical materials. Her equations would help to create computer
simulations for products that have not yet been invented.

I realized that I really do improvise in what I do on a daily basis

as a math teacher. I do think of myself as slightly artsy in nature and also
creative, so perhaps I do have a few mathematician-like qualities.

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 85

The narrator indicated that Dr. Hunt thinks of solving difficult

mathematical problems the same as solving puzzles, and introduces the
puzzle, Towers of Hanoi.

"It turns out that many of the same skills, many of the same
problems, many of the same insights that we need, in order
to solve difficult problems, involve the principles that can be
found in games and puzzles. So, for example, suppose this is
an example of a problem. Although it doesn't look terribly
mathematical, it is, in a sense that I hope you'll see, and
you'll agree. And this is a game - it's about 100 years old -
and it's known as Towers of Hanoi. The object of the game:
focuses on this tower of eight disks. We want to move this
tower of disks from the peg here on the right to the peg here
on the left. And the rule is that I have to move each disk one
at a time. And the second rule is that you can put one disk on
top of another. But you cannot put a larger disk on top of a
bottom (smaller) disk. Billions of people do games and
puzzles of various kinds. And I think not only to refresh
ourselves, but it engages the creative powers of the mind.
And for any problems, no matter how serious, the creative
powers of the mind are needed in order to solve them."

The late Robert B. Davis, a research mathematician of the Davis

Institute, gave the history of the Towers of Hanoi:

"They claim there was an order of monks in the City of

Hanoi, who were religious men who lived by themselves.
And they were concerned about when the world was going
to end. And so they made a puzzle like this which has 100
disks in it. And they spent all of their time - plus they eat
and sleep and things like that - but when they're not doing
things like that, they spend all their time working to solve
that puzzle. When they have it done, that's supposed to be
when the world ends."

Dr. Hunt explained that it is hard to continue to follow the rules

with so many disks flying around so

"... one of the first things that a mathematician often does is

to simplify the situation. Rather than look at the problem in
all its complexity, look at another problem. And that
problem shares, perhaps, some of the characteristics of the

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86

original problem. But it has many fewer of the complexities.

And you would work with that simpler problem to see what
one could learn. Hopefully, what you learn in that situation,
you can apply to the more complex situation. Another thing
that a mathematician does is look for patterns. They look at,
perhaps, many instances. And from those classes of
problems that the mathematician is solving, certain patterns
may arise. The idea is in some sense to try to understand or
somehow summarize what that pattern might be."

This I could relate to. I am always simplifying things for my

students and giving examples that fit the rules. I did not think that
mathematicians did that at all.

Another activity that helped solidify for me that I thought like a

mathematician was the construction of a Venn diagram that made the
comparisons between what mathematicians did and what math teachers
did, and it clearly showed that math teachers were in fact
mathematicians.

Math Teachers Mathematicians

Explain problems, Option to work alone

'Comprehensive battery /intellectual *w\uthority over what they knoS

knoV
Rely on mathematicians, Patience \ Good at math
Predetermined material / Study math \ Publish
f May
May not
not fully
fully understand
understandmath/
matf/Enjoy
Enjoymath,
math,
Assumption that|Assumption
they understand^that they unders
concepts
Paper work / process oriented
Instruct math
Instruct math II Share
Share knowledge
knowledge Seeking
Seeking new
new
problems
problems

^Behavior managers for children Know math

Focus
Focusisis
more discipline
more formed
discipline I
formed J
Care for children \ Problem Solving
Molds minds \ Professional One
Oneproblem
problemat aat
time
a time
Creative Thought Discover ideas
Guide student discovery \ Experience
Facilitate student learning\ Role Models

Multi-tasking 1
I mjstrt
m{Sirt knowKRlge
knowKMge

A particular problem from the FAME Analysis and

Trigonometry course used calculus and trigonometry on the vascular

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 87

system to determine the optimal angle of veins. It made me feel like I

was doing something similar to the type of work that Dr. Hunt does. The
problem is as follows:

The vascular yCeS system should work so as to minimize

the energy bexpended by the heart in pumping the
blood. In particular, this energy is
reduced when the resistance of the
blood is lowered. Poiseuille's Law
a ** gives the resistance R of the blood as
R = C —r where L is the length of the blood vessel, r is the radius a
r

is a positive constant determined by the viscosity of the blood. Poise

established this law experimentally. The figure shows a main b
vessel with radius r\ branching at an angle 0 into a smaller vessel w
radius r2. Use Poiseuille's Law to show that the total resistance o
f a - b cot 0 b esc 0 A
blood along the path ABC is R = C- + - where a and b
r4
'2

are distances shown in the figure.

Solving for L [the lengths BC and x (From B to right end)]

b h
tan 0 = — sin 0 ■
x BC
b b
x = BC =
tan 0 sin 6
bcotO =bcsc0
L=AB+BC

= (a-bcotd)+bcscO

Substituting into Poiseuille's Law

^ ,a - b cot9 b csc6L
R = C{ i 4
+ —7—)
4
2

r a b cot 0 b esc 6 A
= C ~~4 4 ' 4
V r\ 2

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I then differentiate R to get

^cscO cot 9^
= Cbcsc9 4 4
V 1 h

After further substitution and solving for 9,1

is 78.604° approximately 79°.

I finally believed I think like a mathem

confident in my role as a mathematics teach
my students' thinking from concrete to abst
am better prepared to eliminate the fear that
mathematics and help them take those risks o
analyzing if those conjectures make sense. I k
toward generalizing and justifying their solut

As a disciple of math, I had one more que

recognize that they are learning from their o
Fellow, I learned the importance of keeping j
consequently I teach my classes with the use of math
journals/notebooks. I make my students keep all of their work in their
notebooks. I walk around my classroom daily and check to make sure
that assignments were completed; however, I do not collect it. They
write their notes in their books, followed by the class practice, then the
homework. I encourage my students to revise their work, and I collect
the notebook when it is full and they begin another one. At the end of the
school year, I usually have 4 to 5 notebooks from each student, which I
return as "my gift" to show how much they have learned. I also make
comments or put smiles on what I find particularly well written.

Through this process of student journaling, I find that I leam

something daily from my students because the students and I have
dialogues about their learning. I usually model the situations presented
in the Connected Math book1 and invite the students to think about
alternative ways to do problems. I am continually amazed at the maturity
with which students attack the problems and answer questions. The
students feel confident that they understand because they have the
opportunity to try problems in ways I have not shown them and to
explain their thinking, and I leam how and why they approached the
problem as they did.

Ed Note: the classroom book

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 89

As I continued in my studies, I encountered another question:

'How Does Gaining More Content Knowledge Change The Way
Learning Takes Place?'
Gaining more content knowledge has been as an up and down
exercise for me. I have had highs because I have learned so much
mathematics that I can teach to my students, and I have lows when I feel
I cannot impart knowledge to my students. Being a FAME Fellow has
equipped me to deal with my attitude toward mathematics and taught me
how to take a fresh look at the errors or insightfulness of my students. I
believe that both my dedication as a teacher and the content knowledge I
have gained have been the biggest factors to my success as a math
teacher. I also believe that if teachers are dedicated to what they are
teaching then they can achieve fluency for their students even if they
have a limited amount of content knowledge in mathematics. With
experience in a course, teachers are able to develop the dialogue that
reinforces and challenges their students.

I also have learned to talk less and question more. My questioning

puts the responsibility of learning on the students. In gaining more
content knowledge I have become a facilitator of education rather than
the 'imparter of knowledge'. In facilitating, I feel that my students have
become more confident in their abilities as learners of mathematics. This
statement by Deborah Ball is where I see myself going as a teacher by
continually adding content knowledge:

Other people describe subject matter knowledge in terms of

qualitative standards such as "flexibility" or "depth."
Hawkins argues (1972/1974) that a teacher's "own
mathematical domain must be ample enough ... to match the
full range of a child's wonder and curiosity, his unexpected
ways of gaining insight." Such knowledge enables the
teacher to sense when a child's explorations are taking him
or her to "mathematically sacred ground."

Being able to take a student to "mathematically sacred ground"

brought me further into the light of mathematics. Now I must answer
this question: 'How Do Teachers [Fellows] Know They Themselves
Have Learned A New Concept?'

What does it mean to learn a new concept? Is there an amount of

knowledge that is better than any other amount - superficially well,

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moderately well, extremely well? I had to read a bit to find some

answers that support the quick answer I want to give.

Keith Devlin, in his 2007 article written for the MAA Online
"What is Conceptual Understanding," discusses two viewpoints of
knowledge. The first viewpoint is that "Conceptual Understanding First"
is important, and the second is that "Skills Acquisition First" is
important. Conceptual understanding is touted as one of the five strands
in mathematical proficiency, and without it, one does not really 'know'
mathematics. While Devlin supports that view he also believes that
"many mathematical concepts can be understood only after the learner
has acquired procedural skill in using the concept. In such cases,
learning can take place only by first learning to follow symbolic rules,
with understanding emerging later." I believe that procedural knowledge
must be followed by conceptual knowledge, otherwise the procedures
are forgotten.

Devlin states, "I believe that the need for rule-based skill
acquisition before conceptual understanding can develop is in fact the
norm for more advanced parts of mathematics (calculus and beyond),
and I'm not convinced that it is possible to proceed otherwise in all of
the more elementary parts of the subject.." So what does that say about
how I know I learned a new concept? I know I have learned a new
concept if I am able to talk about it at many different levels. If I am able
to explain it then I feel that I have a good grasp of the components of the
concept, and once I am prepared to teach it then I truly know that I have
learned that concept. Does that mean that I know every little thing about
a concept if I am teaching it? No, I think that there is always something
more to know, but I know it well enough to impart the most important
parts of the concept. Devlin gave an example that solidifies that idea for
me. He wrote:

"Suppose that you want to teach the 'cat' concept to a very

young child. Do you explain that a cat is a relatively small, primarily
carnivorous mammal with retractable claws, a distinctive sonic output,
etc.l I'll bet not. You probably show the kid a lot of different cats,
saying 'kitty' each time, until it gets the idea. To put it more generally,
generalizations are best made by abstraction from experience."

It is novel for me to be able to say that I know what it takes for

me to know math. I have become one with the subject and do not fear
saying so. Knowing what is involved for me to leam a new concept
translates to my students because I expect them to be able to solve

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 91

problems; be able to explain them and then teach me, their classmates or
whoever needs to know, what they have learned.

As one who knows that she knows math, I came to my final

question: 'How Do Fellows [Teachers] Gain Content Knowledge?' In
answering this question, I reflected on my mathematics training. Most
algebra that I learned was in the 9th grade. The bulk of my plane
geometry knowledge I learned in the 10th grade. The teachers of these
two courses made such an impact on my life that I have never forgotten
what they taught me. I gained a few pointers in college, but not much
more. The majority of my content knowledge has been in the form of
stating/regurgitating facts or rules. I never really asked why it worked or
how it worked, just that it did. Rachel Mae Welder in her dissertation
supports my quest of content knowledge.

"...(A)rgues that teacher education institutions need to offer

numerous mathematics courses for teachers that treat
mathematics as sense making, rather than rule following.
Teachers must be taught mathematics properly before they can
be expected to teach it properly; and, universities must take the
lead in making changes in the way that mathematics is taught.
However, Battista warns that simply taking more college-level
mathematics courses will not adequately prepare students to
teach elementary mathematics. Most university mathematics
courses merely reinforce the view of mathematics as a set of
memorized procedures; hence, taking more of them will not
benefit pre-service elementary teachers in the area of
specialized content knowledge."

While Welder states that the courses will not benefit pre-service
elementary teachers, the same cannot be said for seasoned middle
school teachers. I will defend the need for taking more mathematics
courses; it keeps the mathematics current and forces seasoned
teachers to refine various aspects of the course. Taking courses also
demands that we make some sense or meaning of our subject for our
students.

My statistics course was definitely one that helped me gain

content knowledge because I did not learn much about statistics in high
school and the course I had in college was abysmal. From the instructor I
learned to use graphing calculator applications.

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Learning the theory and history behind these new concepts has
greatly enlightened me. Through the guidance of the FAME instructors,
my 'Mathematical Master Prophets' - I know I can be the theoretician
they knew I could be.

Through this journey I have learned many things as a FAME

Fellow. I have learned many ways to understand math, the importance of
formal reflection about my work, and that I actually do "think like a
mathematician." I also have a greater appreciation for the mathematics
that I learn from my students and the importance of having a good
handle on content and the effects that content knowledge has on student
learning and achievement.

What had the greatest impact on me in this program was the

interaction that I had with my colleagues. I have become a better
collaborator and have become more proficient at gaining and imparting
knowledge to my colleagues. I have come to value their input in my
learning and I have also felt that my ideas were valued. This has changed
the way I teach my students. I have come to expect more collaboration
from them. More is accomplished by collaboration than in isolation. It is
most unfortunate that so many teachers like to close their classroom
doors and teach alone. I feel that it is incumbent on me to help change
that mind-set and being a DC FAME Fellow will give me that fuel to go
out and make those changes and talk to my fellow teachers. There is a
Haitian Proverb that says, "Little by little the little bird makes his nest."
I think that it is a very powerful statement and it fits well with the
mission of being a DC FAME fellow.

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