Extra Credit Paper CUNY 2014 Mathematics Conference: Effective Instructional

Strategies
Teaching Community Approach, Moderator: G. Michael Guy, Queensborough
Community College
For this topic, there were four presenters each with about 12 minutes to make
a presentation.
The first presenters were William J. Baker and Olen Dias from Hostos
Community College. They commented on the Teaching Research Model. They said
Math is actually a spectator sport, Students must be engaged. How do we get
students motivated and prepared to learn?
students feel comfortable.

The speakers feel we must make

They suggested that

teachers to use visuals and

different types of art, which are engaging and visually appealing.

Humor was another additive discussed. We were told not to underestimate
the value of humor. Additionally, another common theme mentioned by many of the
Professors is that Math must relate to real world problems which be directly
applicable to the students life. There must be a sense of discovery, a moment of
realization for the student. There was agreement among all of the topic presenters
that Math needs to be taught in a way that it is not only understandable by the
Math superstars, but also by the weakest students. All the Professors advocated this
approach, even though it requires a lot of extra work. Often, the weaker students
need things explained slower and step by step.
The speakers pushed the idea that students will do better in all subjects if
they do well in Math. Scaffolding and small interactivities were mentioned as ways
to engage students so that they become more interactively involved in learning
Mathematics. They also mentioned that teachers should select topics of interest to
the students. Students can collect and formulate the data, thus making it more

interesting.

From this, students can learn to state the relevant hypotheses, ask

important questions and put the data correctly nto a frequency distribution.
We were also shown the value of having students work both in groups and
individually.

Students not only learn Math but engage in building better

communication and social skills. They also learn how to be good observers and
learn how to listen. Students are partners; they feel the project and are engaged to
participate.
I liked the quote came from Reem Jaafar, a Professor at LaGuardia
Community College. He stated The day I stop teaching, is the day I stop learning.
They also felt like they were carrying the burden from an underperforming Math
education system, especially at the High School level. Often, they are frustrated at
the underperformance of their students. For example, out of all the courses taught
at the City University of New York, Calculus One has the highest failure rate of any
course. A lot of the presenters attributed this to students being weak in Algebra and
Geometry. They also spoke about the large amount of CUNY students taking
remedial Math.
There was also a lot of talk about having students reflect and think about the
how, what, why, when and where ideas of Mathematics. They felt reflectioncomprehension component was important to learning and permanent retention.
There also was a lot of discussion about the Teaching Research Model. This
model is a cycle of several phases, first, designing of instructional curricula and
methodology based upon education theories and craft practices and second, the
implementation of this along with the recording of student results and performance.

Quality of in-class dialog and onsite evaluation by the teaching or researcher is

important for this model to be fully integrated.
As teachers, our role is to be involved in support, and also motivate,
encourage and challenge our students to become involved and better apply
themselves. As researchers, our role is to step back and be objective as we observe
students thought and learning. The duality of these roles and the demands they
place on teachers research can be supported by a teaching research community.
This can be comprised of a collection of like-minded instructors who discuss
educational theories, as well as discuss the success and failures of ones attempt to
implement these theories.