My Philosophy of Mathematics Education

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Philosophy of Education by Michelle Libersat My goal as an educator is to help students achieve independent, higher-level thinking about mathematics. It is not enough for students to master a skill or memorize an algorithm; they must first discover why the technique makes sense and then logically apply that to the new concept. On any given day, one would observe me as the role of facilitator of the classroom, interacting with students and guiding them to develop conjectures and realizations on their own. When challenged with a new problem, I try to demonstrate the thought process used in problem solving, thereby helping students to achieve this higher-level thinking. Experimentation, discovery, and problem solving are at the forefront of my classroom. For real learning to happen, the subject needs to be engaging and should draw from students’ life experiences. I make lessons meaningful by supplementing them with real-world applications and hands-on activities where appropriate. I demonstrate mathematical patterns and relationships in the world around them, so they better appreciate the skills they have learned. The ultimate goal is for students to think deeply and to problem solve, however it is important to reinforce learned skills and apply them to new contexts. I try to incorporate practice of skills daily, both explicitly through a daily warm-up and homework practice and covertly by integrating them into new topics. Through this, students realize that skills are not simply acquired in order to pass a test, but they are a small part of a much bigger concept. In addition, I regularly supplement the textbook with a variety of assignments to develop critical and creative thinking through problem solving. This way, students can see that there are a multitude of approaches to a solution and that the journey can be more rewarding and important than
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