Karan's Math Explorations

Summary In this paper, our professor Susan and her collaborator Julia discuss about the strict "grids" of schooling in the Western education system. A majority of the education experiences of teachers are confined to their boxes of classrooms, which are an example of grids. According to Davis and Sumara, the conceptual and temporal components of education are also formed into a grid, in addition to physical components like desks, chairs, windows, and boards. For example, the daily school timetable, the yearly calendar, report cards, and worksheets are also formed into grids. This paper questions if teachers can 'swing' or 'parkour' the strict grid-like structures of education. It also discusses if a teacher can be both inside and outside the grid. There is also a metaphor about dancing teachers, so that they are being with a garden. First stop On page 173, it is mentioned that a grid has been used a tool for colonialism since the 15th century, when European co...

Summary According to previous studies, gesturing plays a positive role in children's learning. For example, children who are instructed to gesture while explaining how they solved a math question learn better in subsequent lessons than children asked not to gesture (Broaders, Cook, Mitchell, & Goldin-Meadow, 2007). The goal of this study was to find the mechanism by which gesturing helps children learn better. A group of children aged 9-10 were given a pretest with six mathematics problems, and only those who answered all the problems incorrectly were included in the study. These children were randomly assigned to three groups: the no-gesture condition, correct-gesture condition, and partially-correct-gesture condition. Those in the correct-gesture and partially-correct-gesture conditions were shown a mathematics question and taught some words and gestures, while those in the no-gesture condition were shown the same question and taught the same words without gestures. The child...