Student Motivation
Some students study because they do well with their marks or because
they like learning. Many more become cynical about the value of
education. How do we help them?
An advisor should not give direct advice. The advisor
instead offers open or multi-choice problems for others, interested
parties, students, sons or daughters, to solve. Then they have a say in
what to do. No one likes to be told.
Here are a few questions or problems for your teen to
consider.
D What to do in School and Why
E. How to Study Mathematics
While some teenagers may skip the terrible teens and remain polite and
serious, the terrible teens arrive sooner or later for most. During that
period parents can do no right. And during that period if not before,
school may become less attractive. Elementary students may be motivated
by the notion that school attendance helps them grow-up or mature, but
after several years of schooling from ages 6 to 13 say, school loses it
appeal. It is compulsory, parent and teachers may not be say clearly why
school is necessary except for bureaucratic need for a high school
graduation as a ticket to further studies if not employment.
Compulsory instructions may seem pointless for some students. The
question of why go or why stay does not have a clear nor immediate
answer. The reward if any lies in the future.
One way to motivate students is to say that studying is a job and to
support that view with pay or pocket money for performance and
attitude. That is, students could be given an immediate reward for
their effort. (As an instructor, I would not object to informing
students that their pay in my class depends on their work habits and
work presentation - In the presence of a demanding and rigourous
curriculum, students may not see point of the long preparation. Some
way to get students to behave in class with motivation would be
welcome.
My subject properly taught can be rather dry despite efforts on my part
to lighten the subject and provide a context for it. Kid who lack
motivation slow learning for themselves and will sooner or later not
cooperate in their own education,. and may even rebel.
Students in the past and today have been expected to bring their own
motivation. That motivation may be inherited from parents. Students with
motivation, regardless of source, will go further than students with
out. The will to learn is important.
Teachers and school may provide encouragement. Instruction in not leading
to definite ends, but in leading to general ends cannot say to a student
in concrete terms why he or she should work at their studies and take
those studies seriously. General statements of the importance of
education may lack specifics. So education itself may mean following a
dream or path with no definite aims nor ends. And in those
circumstances, loss of interest in school may be a sign of intelligence.
Parents and Course Designers need to consider the question of leadership,
the question of how to provide motivation for learning.
Attempt to provide motivation are provided by the appendices in site
volume three skills for algebra on what to do in school and
why, and on how
to study mathematics and why. Besides those appendices, parents may
give their teens and younger charges a message, namely that mastery of
logic and arithmetic
(fraction sense) is provides the intelligence needed to follow multi-step
methods in many arts and disciplines at school, home and work. The
knowledge that an error in one step makes all that follow wrong or likely
to be wrong is a sign of intelligence and application provided by the
mastery of logic and arithmetic.
Postscript November 2011
If your child were to say, there are too many letters in the alphabet to
remember, you would explain otherwise. Likewise, if your child or
teenager complains mastery of counting, measuring and figuring skills
with numbers, maps-plans-diagrams drawn to scale and algebra is
pointless, you need to explain otherwise. Site material will describe
-today or eventually - writing is an iterative affair - how mastery of
arithmetic, algebra, geometry and logic may serve the needs of adult and
daily life, and also prepare for college studies.
One may say that mathematics in particular provides a language for the
correct and incorrect description of ideas and calculations in
business, science, technology, engineering and further mathematical
disciplines. Beyond your present knowledge of this language, you need
to understand more to see where is its used exactly or not, and to
understand the approximations or errors in its use.
Since writing the advice above more thought has been given to the
question of context or motivation for mathematics and logic
education.
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There is more context and motivation for primary than
secondary education. Primary education in reading, writing and
arithmetic has clear value for adult and daily-life. It is practical.
Secondary education in mathematics today often emphasizes skills and
topics with long-term value for college programs involving calculus
or STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Many
accounting or business activities involve mathematics or statistics
for better or worse - insurance, stock market, credit card activites,
marketing. But the latter form of secondary mathematics from the
first year of secondary schooling to the end is too remote from the
practical needs of adult and daily life, serves only the few - 10 to
20% who will succeed in college programs involving calculus and STEM,
and does not serve common needs of all. The site general remedy for
that in early and mid-secondary schooling is to focus mathematics and
logic-language skills and activities with actual or potential value
for adult and daily-life before preparation for college programs in
calculus & STEM begins in ernest. Then when the latter begins,
those skills and practices with even the slightest amount of
take-home value for adult or daily life will be put first. Finally,
when such skills and practices are exhausted, the remaining pure
mathematics topics - those needed for calculus etc - will be covered.
The general remedy is flexible - different schools may implement it
in different ways. But the general remedy is a prescription for
leaving a good impression by putting take-home value first and
long-term value secondary, all combined with site steps for
simplifying and enriching skill and concept mastery in logic and
mathematics. The proof is in the details.
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In North America and Europe, modern educational pyschology in
the form of contructivism and cognitive theory holds that true
knowledge is located in the mind apart from observable and material
skill development. Because of that teacher training programs and
school systems are telling teachers, reflection is more important
than observable skill mastery. That contradicts the common assumption
that skill has been seen to be believed.
Because of that school systems may be advocating an immaterial
and subjective view of knowledge contrary to the tenets and practices
of mathematics and the empirical sciences. Where the latter accept is
not all is certain in their useful theories and practices,
educational pyschology in the form of constructivism and cognitive
theory is saying the only true path to knowledge is through
reflection and personal discovery in any manner not subject to peers
nor teachers. Thus when your child or teen in school looks for a
clear and direction explanation - make life simple for me, teachers
following school dictates may try help indirectly and suggest how
your child or teen may discover what they want. That year after years
is not only tedious, but also problematic. This site refines the art
of direct instruction in mathematics and logic by showing how to
provide skills and concept directly and clearly - the aim of writing
was to fill gaps in the process - make it simpler and clearer for
teachers not fully versed in mathematics. However, the newer art of
indirect explanation is not fully documented. Post-modern school
systems in providing course designs that call for teachers
half-trained or unversed in a mathematical discipline to employ the
indirect U-discover-it approach and course materials in their
instruction are putting dogma before practice. It very good to have
students who think, who have discovered skills and practices by
themselves, but those students and society need observable skill
mastery in an empirical manner far more than they need nebulous,
unverified and invisible reflection skills. That lack of attention to
skill mastery and its pre-requisites, combined with olde skill
development difficulties present in earlier instruction, explains in
part how students in "rich" countries may graduate from primary and
secondary schools without a strong mastery of reading, writing and
arithmetic.
The underlying causes of student difficulty and alienation in course
design and delivery will not be corrected in schools overnight. But
parents may help at home by providing home-tutoring to complement or
replace in-school studies in mathematics and language skills. Site
support is not immediate for that. There is a difference between seeing
what needs to be done and actually doing it.
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Secondary
Mathematics for Ages 11+, A Practical Approach for home-tutoring or -schooling, or for schools & colleges
with local curriculum control. Study how to include site content - its skill development how-TOs and innovations
into present or future lesson plans - some reading required.
Road
Safety Messages and Questions: When and why should you face
traffic when walking along a road or cycle path? Is it a good
idea to hang limbs outside of cars etc? What gives more
protection in a crash: a car, motorbike or bicycle?
See too, the BBC-Belgium story Texting and
Driving - texting & the impossible test - the article links to a gruesome utube video on the subject
The Logic of Injustice:
How Texas sent
an innocent man to his death - The wrong Carlos. Some judgments are irreversible. Procescution: Where and when prosectors play to win rather than for
justice, guilt beyond a reasonable doubt goes unrespected due to prosecutors who putting winning
first, those innocence before the law may be convicted. Some procescutors offices in continuing to accuse after a pardon
due to reasonable doubt or innocent being shown, may sucessfully oppose compensaton for false convictions
by asserting a pardon individual is still under suspicion. Then the pardoned individual or the latter's estate
is not compensation for years or decade
of improper or false imprisonment, or for execution. Site chapters on Logic
and some in Pattern
Based Reason may slowly lead to greater precision in reading, applying and
writing laws.
May 2012, Composition Starting:
Pre-School and Primary Mathematics - Quantitative Skills, An
Intellectual View, Feedback Welcome:
The 8 Most Popular Site Inlinks
Parent Center: Help your child or teen
learn:
Parent-friendly
Work Booklets for ages 3+ to 13 Use these or others to check
or build skills. Other booklets are available but these booklets
allow parents unsure of themselves in mathematics to help their
children. The selection acquired in Canada is published in the
USA. So it has a US orientation. In retrospect, the selection
shows parents what to check with the booklets or by other ways,
the choice is theirs. But in retrospect, the selection does not
cover integral and fractions liquid weights and measures - ask
the publishers to correct that! For ages 9 to 12 say, parents may
compensate by showing boys and girls how to use weights or mass,
and further measures in food preparation. Beyond that children
may be shown how to measure and calculate angles, lengths and
areas [proportional amounts too] directly or by using maps and
plans drawns to scale. Learning how to gather and measure all the
ingredients, pots and pans for a dish or a meal, along with
cleaning up sets the stage for like activities or experiments in
science courses, and in developing organizational skills,
gives boys and girls a head start. Good luck. At the other
extreme, more comprehensive than light, if your motto is
McCainian: drill, drill, drill then Toronto
mathematician and actor John Mighton's jump math organization has jump math
workbooks for at least grades 3 to 8 for at-home and in-school
use - training sessions for teachers available. Jump math has
been expanding to cover older students. Jump Math Samples: plus
Fractions for
Grades 3-4 & Grades 5-6 [Read] Free Resources grades 1 to 8
[unread - likely to be good]. and
Mathematics
Skills For Ages 3 to 14 - technical!
Skills with take
home value - A few ideas
Basic skills include
time-date-calendar Matters; money matters; map, plan and
scale diagram matters;counting, measuring and figuring;
decision making with logic and likelyhood; being careful and
being aware of the domino effect of mistakes; reading and
writing with precision.
Is your child able to add, subtract and multiply amounts
of money, work with fractions, work with clocks and calendars,
work with maps and plans, and measure length, weight-mass and
volume? Schools may promote your son or daughter without
providing basic skills in reading, writing and
arithmetic.
Arithmetic
and Number Theory Skills
Algebra
Starter Lessons
Geometry
- maps plans trigonometry vectors
More
Algebra
70
Calculus Starter Lessons
Calculus Lessons Elsewhere:
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How to Ace Calculus: Street Wise Guide - Mostly
Text.
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Flash
Video for Calculus Phobics
They cover basic topics in ways likely to complement your
notes, your textbooks and site material. When Goldilocks
trespassed in the house of the three bears, she found three bowls
of porridge, two not to her liking, and one just right. Different
bears have different tastes. As invited guest here and elsewhere,
if one or more explanations is not to liking, try another. It may
be better or just right.
Unsolicited Advice
Learning to do and high marks if it comes to easy is often
deceptive - light rather than deep. For that reason, students
with learning difficulties determined not to let it get in their
way may go deeper and farther than those with none. High marks,
if the come easy, may be deceptive - provide a too light and not
a deep mastery. That could have been your problem in secondary
school, one that leads to comprehension shock or difficulties in
calculus and more generally in the first year of college. Bon
Appetite.
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