TV shows like CSI use real-life examples of situations to create interest and excitement in their shows that draw its viewers to watch on a nightly basis. Though the show itself is not real, the ideas behind it have the potential to be. It is quite possible that the crimes that are depicted in the show could have happened at one point or another. But now I ask - would the show be as interesting if the events were completely fictional and far from believable?
Teaching concepts in our school systems should be set up the same way. Our history, geography and science classes are all about true facts and instances, but our math classes seem to be strict and by-the-book. If math teachers used real-life examples and situations, and created lessons and units on that, students would be much more interested in the material. Granted, not everyone enjoys history, geography or even science, but the enthusiasm for tackling real-life situations is far greater than when the material is just rules or conventions.
We learned in class this week that "the best teachers bring the world into the classroom." Students develop a deeper understanding of the material if they can believe what they are working on. Instead of just doing straight computations for a set of data (trying to add the values), imaging that we are going furniture shopping as a class and we want to know roughly how much we'd need to spend at the store to get all of our purchases. It seems daunting at first, but when student success is increasing because of the new approach, it makes it all that more feasible and enjoyable too.
No comments:
Post a Comment