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weebecka:

 Sorry I haven't really done mathematical disocoveries by students yet.  Got to go for now.

Do you need a few hours to make up some examples?

weebecka:

 Sorry I haven't really done mathematical disocoveries by students yet.  Got to go for now.

You don't do yourself any favours do you?

Have you actually taught before or is it all a fantasy? Every single point or anecdote you make is a lie or a deliberate obfuscation. 

What is the real truth of the matter weebecka? Is this some sort of Walter Mitty type of life for you which is slowly unravelling?

Sorry, I was guilty of missing some of these gems.

weebecka:

 Because of all the strikes my school was shut a lot when she did this so I went to her lectures with her.  Of course the educational psychology taught was a mess, but what it did do was it started her and me talking about everything.

So, you are telling us that as a 8 or 9 year old you went to university lectures with your mother and had deep meaningful discussions with her on Educational Psychology? So either

a. the lectures were so dumbed down that you could understand them ( I doubt it )

b. your mother, as most mothers would, tolerated your questions and answered them as best she could ( perhaps )

c. another deliberate misinterpretation of an event where you went to some university lectures with your mother because you couldn't go to school, read a book or did some colouring in while the lecture was going on, and asked her what it was about afterwards and she mumbled something polite and pleasant ( most likely )

weebecka:

By the time I was in year 4 I was doing year 7 work.

I have no reason whatsoever to doubt that you were doing year 7 work in year 4. However there is no such thing as year 4 maths or year 7 maths. The only thing that changes is the depth and complexity of understanding. You can teach a 7 year old to differentiate if you so wish. It does not mean that the 7 year old knows what differentiation is. All they know is what the mechanical operation of differentiation is.

The question I would ask is what really was being learnt by the students? Mechanical operations or real understanding of mathematical operations?

weebecka:

  We had to do 6 projects, topics chosen by us.  Now this was a very powerful thing to do.

Why? I still don't understand why giving some students a free reign on projects is such a "powerful" thing to do. Was it because you were allowed to discover mathematics for yourself? Surely this is a daming indictment of the teaching that was going on in your school anyway as it left no room for individual discovery.

weebecka:

Meanwhile over in Cumbria

We all now know about Cumbria, thank you very much.

weebecka:

Many key characters came from here, for example Eric Love who went on to head up maths at the OU was head of maths at Wyndham.

So what? It doesn't mean anything. All it means was that he was a good administrator who managed to obtain a post with the OU. It doesn't tell us anything about his teaching, although the fact that the school was damned by Ofsted and closed down tells us a lot about how his department may have been operating.

weebecka:

These schools were not chaotic hippyfests Karvol.  They were very well organised, effective and highly respected school.

No they weren't. Stop deluding yourself. They were failures who were damning whole generations of children to underachievement. They deserved to be closed down.

 I asked you about the gems of pedagogical practice from the 70's and the only example was, literally, give the kids a book and let them get on with it.

It is not really all that ispirational now is it?

You made a big show and tell about all the mathematical learning and discovery going on in your classroom and your response is

 Sorry I haven't really done mathematical disocoveries by students yet.

Do you realise how damning a statement this is?

For a start it means that you compartmentalise the learning of mathematics. It also means that all that wonderful stuff you were saying about how students learnt in your classroom was not true. They really did not discover anything.

Again do you not see how damning a statement this is, that in so many years of teaching nothing of note, nothing mathematical was discovered by a single student?

weebecka:

Have you never met any of them Karvol?

Funnily enough, no. 

I have never taught in the state sector and I doubt whether many of them hang around international schools.

weebecka:

Even with a very simple concept like multiplication, there is substantial variation over time and confusion now as to what it actually is.  I can explain this further if you like (it helps if you spend sometime thinking about what you personally think multiplication is as part of this), or we can move on to a different theme.

Oh you don't have to get that complicated, just try 7x3.  What's that?

there is confusion as to what multiplication of 2 numbers in the decimal system is? the concept of multiplication has expanded with matrices, groups and all the things a humble primary school teacher can ignore most of the time, but expansion is not change

so - i draw 7 rows of 3 dots each - you can argue i should draw 3 rows of 7 dots each - and yes, i do think that matters and it's something we're trying to standardize at school atm - and you count 'em and there's 21 dots

where's the social construct? am i so going to regeret asking that?

oh - and betamale - yeah, then i tell them to flaming learn it to comply with mrs f's third law (the laziest way is the best way)