Module Four

   I can remember sitting in lectures in college and listening to long, finite math lessons.  I would go to class and think to myself that I hated math for one hour, three days a week, and to this day, I can’t repeat one algorithm or theorem from the class.  The days spent sitting in that lecture hall before I ultimately dropped the class could not have been a bigger waste of time.  I wasn’t learning anything, I didn’t feel equipped for the challenge of the class, moreover the notes that I took meant nothing to me once I left through the lecture hall doors.  The experience of taking that math class taught me a few things. 

     My fear and failed past with math left me unmotivated to try to push myself to complete the class.  Although I remember being so pleased to tell my mother that I had tested into the  class, I was completely unprepared for the challenge.  I knew that no matter how much effort that I put into learning finite math, I was missing so many of the skills that had come before this level of mathematics that I knew that I would not be able to complete the course with any efficacy.

     I also realized that although I did all of the right things as far as note taking and highlighting important information while I was in class, those efforts really didn’t support my learning.  Note taking doesn’t work if you lack the prior knowledge to make connections with the information.  Although, I took time in class writing down problems, when I referred back to them I was disconnected with the things that I wrote because I didn’t understand them.

     Although I don’t know if the outcome of taking a finite class today would fair any differently then it did seventeen  years ago, I do understand the principles that would lead to a more productive experience.  The lecture style of this class did not allow for the acquisition phase of the transfer learning experience.  If I’d acquired the knowledge and then been able to practice the execution of the problems successfully multiple times I may have been able to move into the retention phase of transfer. 

    As I think about learning strategies and how I can support the students in my classroom I think I will need to reflect on that young undergrad student sitting in a finite math class.  My students will need to be cognitively engaged in the material that I’m teaching.  I won’t be able to stand in front of my classroom lecturing without ensuring that my students are connected to the information that I’m giving.  My students will need to invest the effort in the things that I teach.  They will need to make connections and think deeply about activities, and activities cannot be designed so far above where they are academically that they aren’t able to translate the information.  I will also need to help my students organize information in a way that allows them to effectively store and retain knowledge, so that they can use this knowledge in the future.