Saturday, January 31, 2009

Can you help?

In my humanities class, one of our trios is studying the 1930s and reading The Grapes of Wrath. As they make text-to-self, text-to-text and text-to-world connections, they can't help but compare the suffering of the 1930s to today. Many of my students' parents are getting laid off, losing their homes, losing their health insurance, losing their pensions. When they came across the word "apocalyptic" in reference to the economic disaster of the '30s, they really got it.

It's in this context that I'm teaching my Life Skills class. Yesterday I had a speaker, a financial planner, who talked to the kids about the cost of life after high school - buying a house, a car, etc. He told me beforehand that he expected that everyone would know at least one millionaire - but only one kid in the class did. I think he was a little taken aback by some of their questions. One student asked about the financial burden of having a child. The speaker said, "That's something you really need to think long and hard about before deciding to do," not knowing that this student's girlfriend had recently given birth to a daughter. Another student asked, "If my parents have tons of debt and they die, will it all get transferred to me?"

It's scary out there - especially for my kids. That's why I hope you can take a look at my proposal on DonorsChoose.org - I am asking for a camcorder to help us practice some financial literacy skills. Even if you can't spare $10 or $25 right now, it would be great if you could pass it along to friends or family members who care about schools or financial literacy.

Thank you!

Friday, January 30, 2009

'Gaming' university rankings

Read this from the Duke alumnus magazine. I think it's a good reminder for our VCs - don't try to 'game' the ranking system, concentrate on improving your university in ways you see fit.

Under the GargoyleThe Rankings Game: Who's Playing Whom?
By John F. Burness

U.S. News & World Report published its first annual ranking of the nation's best colleges in 1983. In the years since, the publication has spawned a cottage industry, transformed how the public thinks about higher education, and in the process made a lot of money.

Over the past three decades, I've had ample opportunity to dissect the various rankings or discuss the validity of their methodologies in an effort to explain to a wide range of university constituencies, including the news media, why the universities where I worked—the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Cornell, and for the last seventeen years, Duke—were rated where they were. It's fun as I retire from university administration to ruminate on the absurdity of it all.

Ours is a competitive culture, and it should be no surprise that many people are interested in such external assessments of the quality of American higher education. After all, students and families spend as much as $50,000 a year to go to college, and it is reasonable for them to want a credible, independent assessment to help guide their thinking about where to make that significant investment.

That said, I don't know anyone in higher education whom I've talked to since the ratings game began who believes that the magazine rankings can capture what makes the experience offered by an individual institution unique or effective. The precision that U.S. News purports its methodologies reveal is, on the face of it, rather silly. If you look at the top ten institutions, you will see that some of them are separated by small fractions of a percent. In the Olympics, those fractions make a difference, but it's hard to understand how, in the real-life breadth of activities of a university, they make any difference at all to a student.

The rankings give considerable weight to perception and tend to be based on annual assessments, as if undergraduate-program innovations or tweakings manifest significant change in two semesters. U.S. News has artfully—in the guise of improving the veracity of its rankings—made one or more changes in its methodology every few years, which enables it to argue that there is some shift in the quality of institutions that the new methodology has captured. The cynic in me says that the changing of the methodology is more a strategy for getting different results in the rankings, which helps the publication sell more copies.

During my years at Duke, the university ranked as high as tied for third and as low as tied for eighth. The year we tied for third was my favorite. Folks at Duke were understandably elated. I recall telling university leaders, including our trustees, not to crow too much about this jump to our position of three because inevitably the methodology would change, and we would drop a few places—which, of course, is what happened.

My favorite magazine ranking experience wasn't with U.S. News but with Money magazine, which, in the 1990s, had a "Best Buys in Higher Education" issue. In that one, the public universities, almost by definition, ended up having a built-in advantage, although fifteen private institutions were listed among the top 100. Duke was not among the fifteen, much to the consternation of some of our trustees and others. So I met with the editors of Money and asked how we could be ranked in the top ten in the country in other ratings (as skeptical as I was about them) and not make the top-ten private institutions in Money's listing. They mumbled something about our library resources, and I was able to document that their numbers were wrong. The next year, Money came out with a new category: "Costly Schools That Are Worth the Price." Duke was ranked highly in that, and people at Duke were pleased. Alas, I didn't keep the pressure on the magazine, and one year later, it dropped the category.

I remember well a wonderful speech by a distinguished faculty member at my son's freshman convocation several years ago. The scholar compared the founding of that institution to Odysseus' journey, noting that both had decided not to let others define who they were. He urged the freshmen to create their own identity through the choices they made during their college years. Within a moment or two of the faculty member taking his seat, the chancellor of the university—a person I admire enormously—told the assembled freshmen and their parents that while the information was embargoed publicly until 11:59 that night, he felt comfortable telling them in confidence that the university for the first time had cracked the top ten of U.S. News rankings. The response was predictable, with students jumping up and down, and parents smiling at the thought that their investment clearly was going to be worth it. The faculty member sat there, his head bowed.

 I always said when reporters and others sought my reaction to Duke's being ranked somewhere in the top ten: "It's nice to have confirmed what we know about the quality of our students and faculty. But magazine ratings are really designed to help sell magazines. Students should visit a campus, spend real time learning about the academic programs, and determine whether or not they have the right fit with a particular institution." I still think that's very sound advice.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Does This Stimulate Change?

The Washington Post is onto something here ("An Education Stimulus?")
EDUCATION is poised to win big under the economic stimulus plan hurtling through Congress. But it remains to be seen whether America's schoolchildren really will be helped by the huge investment of public funds that is being planned. After all, it seems that much of the billions of dollars of new federal spending is aimed at continuing programs and policies that largely have failed to improve student achievement. For the amount of money being spent, Congress should insist on real change, not simply more of the same.
Its editorial underscores what I was saying yesterday in this post ("Overstated"). More money by itself won't produce educational reform unless the way that money is spent locally changes. It doesn't appear that such requirements will be made part of the stimulus legislation. Thus, the federal role in education isn't poised to become more significant apart from covering a higher (albeit still small) portion of overall education costs.

The Iceman Cometh


Amen! "Washington Post: "As To Ice, Chicago Still Obama's Kind Of Town".
"My children's school was canceled today," Obama said, speaking to reporters before a meeting with business leaders. "Because of what? Some ice? . . . We're going to have to apply some flinty Chicago toughness to this town."
In 2001, the first of three winters I lived in Washington, DC, I innocently walked into my local grocery store one evening on my return home from work. Before me stood dozens of Washingtonians scooping up batteries, bottled water and toilet paper, with checkout lines stretching halfway up the aisles. Why? Two-to-three inches of snow was forecast for the next day. A native New Englander, I rolled my eyes and walked out.

If we lived like that here in Wisconsin -- or in my former Vermont -- the entire state would shut down for half the year. Not gonna happen.

I think President Obama is onto something. Maybe as a condition to giving Washington DC statehood, the Prez should insist on more "Chicago toughness."

In Chicago, where the President's daughters previously attended school, the schools haven't closed for weather since a 1999 ice storm.

------------------------------------------

UPDATE: Just discovered that Huffington Post, Alexander Russo and Kevin Carey beat me to the punch on this one. Guess it takes longer for news to reach Wisconsin ... especially through all this ice and snow.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Tools of American Mathematics Teaching, 1800-2000

The last issue of TCRecord includes a review of a book that I wasn't aware of before, but that certainly looks interesting: "Tools of American Mathematics Teaching, 1800-2000", by Peggy Aldrich Kidwell, Amy Ackerberg-Hastings, and David Lindsay Roberts. The book was published last year. Here is a taster of Alexander P. Karp's excellent review of the book:
In today’s classrooms graphing calculators have become routine, yet thousands of teachers can easily recall a time when they did not exist. Not so with the blackboard, which seems to us something that is almost as old as the idea of education itself. This, however, is by no means the case. Two hundred years ago, and for several decades afterwards, blackboards were a novelty in American classrooms and their use was regarded as a particular feature of teaching style. And indeed, the transition from small tablets made of slate to a large blackboard for the whole class went along with a transition to working simultaneously with a large group of students—a transition that can hardly be viewed as anything other than fundamental.

Tools of American Mathematics Teaching, 1800-2000

The last issue of TCRecord includes a review of a book that I wasn't aware of before, but that certainly looks interesting: "Tools of American Mathematics Teaching, 1800-2000", by Peggy Aldrich Kidwell, Amy Ackerberg-Hastings, and David Lindsay Roberts. The book was published last year. Here is a taster of Alexander P. Karp's excellent review of the book:
In today’s classrooms graphing calculators have become routine, yet thousands of teachers can easily recall a time when they did not exist. Not so with the blackboard, which seems to us something that is almost as old as the idea of education itself. This, however, is by no means the case. Two hundred years ago, and for several decades afterwards, blackboards were a novelty in American classrooms and their use was regarded as a particular feature of teaching style. And indeed, the transition from small tablets made of slate to a large blackboard for the whole class went along with a transition to working simultaneously with a large group of students—a transition that can hardly be viewed as anything other than fundamental.

Overstated

I'm sorry. Am I missing something?

How is the infusion of new federal resources for schools in the stimulus bill going to transform the federal government's role in education? I just don't see it.

Today's front-page New York Times article ("Stimulus Plan Would Provide Flood Of Aid to Education") couches the stimulus bill as a transformative vehicle.
The economic stimulus plan that Congress has scheduled for a vote on Wednesday would shower the nation’s school districts, child care centers and university campuses with $150 billion in new federal spending, a vast two-year investment that would more than double the Department of Education’s current budget.

Critics and supporters alike said that by its sheer scope, the measure could profoundly change the federal government’s role in education, which has traditionally been the responsibility of state and local government.
Hey, $150 billion is nothing to sneeze at. But it still represents a fraction of overall education spending. According to the U.S. Department of Education, federal dollars currently account for less than 9 percent of overall education spending. State and local dollars account for more than 80 percent of the total. Even with a doubling of federal outlays, Uncle Sam would still account for less than 1 in 5 dollars spent on schools.

Republican leaders are crying wolf as well. From the New York Times:
Howard P. McKeon, Republican of California and the ranking minority member of the House education committee, said, “By putting the federal government in the business of building schools, Democrats may be irrevocably changing the federal government’s role in education in this country.”
Listen, short of the inclusion of some major new education policy in this stimulus bill (which won't happen) - greater accountability for spending, such as Title I and Title II dollars, for example - how is this piece of legislation going to "profoundly change" the federal role in education? Answer: Apart from coughing up some new federal resources at a time of need, it's not. It won't fundamentally change the business of teaching and learning without further legislative and policy changes. We still await action on ESEA reauthorization - the next best hope for positive changes and needed reforms to current federal law.

Saying something represents change doesn't make it so.

Science & Education, February 2009

The February issue of Science & Education has been published. None of the articles in this issue are directly related to mathematics education, and the theme of the issue is "Politics and philosophy of science". Still, the issue might be worth checking out, especially if you are interested in the above mentioned theme. 

Science & Education, February 2009

The February issue of Science & Education has been published. None of the articles in this issue are directly related to mathematics education, and the theme of the issue is "Politics and philosophy of science". Still, the issue might be worth checking out, especially if you are interested in the above mentioned theme. 

You Really Like Us...

The Education Optimists just received its 10,000th visitor today. When we began this blog in the middle of last year, we had no idea if people would actually read it. How gratifying that people actually are.

But please stop ringing the doorbell ... just come on in!

Monday, January 26, 2009

CERME 6

The CERME 6 conference starts today in Lyon, France. The conference is organized by ERME, which is the European society for Research in Mathematics Education. The main aims of ERME are to:

(...)to promote communication, cooperation and collaboration in research in mathematics education in Europe

Unfortunately, I am not attending the conference myself, so I am not going to report from it. If you want to learn more about the scientific program for the conference, you can find it here. Below is the location of the conference venue:


View Larger Map

CERME 6

The CERME 6 conference starts today in Lyon, France. The conference is organized by ERME, which is the European society for Research in Mathematics Education. The main aims of ERME are to:

(...)to promote communication, cooperation and collaboration in research in mathematics education in Europe

Unfortunately, I am not attending the conference myself, so I am not going to report from it. If you want to learn more about the scientific program for the conference, you can find it here. Below is the location of the conference venue:


View Larger Map

Sunday, January 25, 2009

In search of an exemplary mathematics lesson in Hong Kong

Ida Ah Chee Mok has written an article that was published in ZDM on Thursday. The article is entitled In search of an exemplary mathematics lesson in Hong Kong: an algebra lesson on factorization of polynomials. The theoretical perspectives for this article are mathematical enculturation and the theory of learning through variation (variation theory). The study which is described in the article is part of the Learner's Perspective Study (LPS). This study
(...) has engaged researchers in the investigation of mathematics classrooms of teachers in Australia, China, the Czech Republic, Germany, Israel, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden and the USA.
Here is the article abstract:
The author here describes an exemplary grade-8 algebra lesson in Hong Kong, taken from the data of the learners’ perspective study. The analysis presents a juxtaposition of the researcher’s analysis of the lesson with the teacher and students’ perspectives of the lesson. The researcher’s perspective applies the theory of variation for which the main concern of learning is the discernment of the key aspects of the object of learning and that the description of variations delineates the potential of the learning space. Some persistent features were illustrated, namely, the teacher talk was a major input in teaching; the technique of variation was used in the design of the mathematical problems and the dimensions of variation created in the class interaction provided a potential learning environment; the teacher taking seriously the student factor into account in his philosophy and practice. From the standpoint of enculturation, the teacher’s influence as an enculturator is intentional, significant and influential.

In search of an exemplary mathematics lesson in Hong Kong

Ida Ah Chee Mok has written an article that was published in ZDM on Thursday. The article is entitled In search of an exemplary mathematics lesson in Hong Kong: an algebra lesson on factorization of polynomials. The theoretical perspectives for this article are mathematical enculturation and the theory of learning through variation (variation theory). The study which is described in the article is part of the Learner's Perspective Study (LPS). This study
(...) has engaged researchers in the investigation of mathematics classrooms of teachers in Australia, China, the Czech Republic, Germany, Israel, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden and the USA.
Here is the article abstract:
The author here describes an exemplary grade-8 algebra lesson in Hong Kong, taken from the data of the learners’ perspective study. The analysis presents a juxtaposition of the researcher’s analysis of the lesson with the teacher and students’ perspectives of the lesson. The researcher’s perspective applies the theory of variation for which the main concern of learning is the discernment of the key aspects of the object of learning and that the description of variations delineates the potential of the learning space. Some persistent features were illustrated, namely, the teacher talk was a major input in teaching; the technique of variation was used in the design of the mathematical problems and the dimensions of variation created in the class interaction provided a potential learning environment; the teacher taking seriously the student factor into account in his philosophy and practice. From the standpoint of enculturation, the teacher’s influence as an enculturator is intentional, significant and influential.

Problem-solving and cryptography

Tobin White has written an interesting article about cryptography and problem solving. The article is entitled Encrypted objects and decryption processes: problem-solving with functions in a learning environment based on cryptography, and the article was published online in Educational Studies in Mathematics on Thursday. Those of you who don't have a subscription to this journal will be interested to know that the article is an Open Access article, and it is therefore available to all! (Direct link to pdf download) Here is the abstract of the article:
This paper introduces an applied problem-solving task, set in the context of cryptography and embedded in a network of computer-based tools. This designed learning environment engaged students in a series of collaborative problem-solving activities intended to introduce the topic of functions through a set of linked representations. In a classroom-based study, students were asked to imagine themselves as cryptanalysts, and to collaborate with the other members of their small group on a series of increasingly difficult problem-solving tasks over several sessions. These tasks involved decrypting text messages that had been encrypted using polynomial functions as substitution ciphers. Drawing on the distinction between viewing functions as processes and as objects, the paper presents a detailed analysis of two groups’ developing fluency with regard to these tasks, and of the aspects of the function concept underlying their problem-solving approaches. Results of this study indicated that different levels of expertise with regard to the task environment reflected and required different aspects of functions, and thus represented distinct opportunities to engage those different aspects of the function concept.

Problem-solving and cryptography

Tobin White has written an interesting article about cryptography and problem solving. The article is entitled Encrypted objects and decryption processes: problem-solving with functions in a learning environment based on cryptography, and the article was published online in Educational Studies in Mathematics on Thursday. Those of you who don't have a subscription to this journal will be interested to know that the article is an Open Access article, and it is therefore available to all! (Direct link to pdf download) Here is the abstract of the article:
This paper introduces an applied problem-solving task, set in the context of cryptography and embedded in a network of computer-based tools. This designed learning environment engaged students in a series of collaborative problem-solving activities intended to introduce the topic of functions through a set of linked representations. In a classroom-based study, students were asked to imagine themselves as cryptanalysts, and to collaborate with the other members of their small group on a series of increasingly difficult problem-solving tasks over several sessions. These tasks involved decrypting text messages that had been encrypted using polynomial functions as substitution ciphers. Drawing on the distinction between viewing functions as processes and as objects, the paper presents a detailed analysis of two groups’ developing fluency with regard to these tasks, and of the aspects of the function concept underlying their problem-solving approaches. Results of this study indicated that different levels of expertise with regard to the task environment reflected and required different aspects of functions, and thus represented distinct opportunities to engage those different aspects of the function concept.

Using history in mathematics education

Uffe Thomas Jankvist has written an article about using history in mathematics education. The article was published in Educational Studies in Mathematics last week, and it is entitled: A categorization of the “whys” and “hows” of using history in mathematics education. Here is the abstract of his article:
This is a theoretical article proposing a way of organizing and structuring the discussion of why and how to use the history of mathematics in the teaching and learning of mathematics, as well as the interrelations between the arguments for using history and the approaches to doing so. The way of going about this is to propose two sets of categories in which to place the arguments for using history (the “whys”) and the different approaches to doing this (the “hows”). The arguments for using history are divided into two categories; history as a tool and history as a goal. The ways of using history are placed into three categories of approaches: the illumination, the modules, and the history-based approaches. This categorization, along with a discussion of the motivation for using history being one concerned with either the inner issues (in-issues) or the metaperspective issues (meta-issues) of mathematics, provides a means of ordering the discussion of “whys” and “hows.”

Using history in mathematics education

Uffe Thomas Jankvist has written an article about using history in mathematics education. The article was published in Educational Studies in Mathematics last week, and it is entitled: A categorization of the “whys” and “hows” of using history in mathematics education. Here is the abstract of his article:
This is a theoretical article proposing a way of organizing and structuring the discussion of why and how to use the history of mathematics in the teaching and learning of mathematics, as well as the interrelations between the arguments for using history and the approaches to doing so. The way of going about this is to propose two sets of categories in which to place the arguments for using history (the “whys”) and the different approaches to doing this (the “hows”). The arguments for using history are divided into two categories; history as a tool and history as a goal. The ways of using history are placed into three categories of approaches: the illumination, the modules, and the history-based approaches. This categorization, along with a discussion of the motivation for using history being one concerned with either the inner issues (in-issues) or the metaperspective issues (meta-issues) of mathematics, provides a means of ordering the discussion of “whys” and “hows.”

Pursuing excellence

Rongjin Huang and Yeping Li have written an article called Pursuing excellence in mathematics classroom instruction through exemplary lesson development in China: a case study. The article was published online in ZDM on Friday. To me, this article is interesting for a few reasons:
  • It has a focus on teaching mathematics
  • It has a focus on how to develop exemplary lessons
  • It has a focus on learning from "master teachers"
  • It provides a nice insight into chinese mathematics teaching
Several aspects in this study remind me of the Lesson Study approach and theories related to Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching (MKT), both of which are among my main research interests. Here is an abstract of their article:
In this article, we aim to examine the features of mathematics classroom instruction excellence valued in China. The popular approach to pursuing mathematics classroom instruction excellence through exemplary lesson development is also investigated to demonstrate the nature of teaching culture that has been advocated and nurtured in China. Features of an exemplary lesson are analyzed in detail, and the practicing teacher’s experience through participating in the development of the exemplary lesson is examined as well. Finally, the implications of developing exemplary lessons for pursuing excellence in mathematics classroom instruction as a culturally valued approach in China are also discussed.

Pursuing excellence

Rongjin Huang and Yeping Li have written an article called Pursuing excellence in mathematics classroom instruction through exemplary lesson development in China: a case study. The article was published online in ZDM on Friday. To me, this article is interesting for a few reasons:
  • It has a focus on teaching mathematics
  • It has a focus on how to develop exemplary lessons
  • It has a focus on learning from "master teachers"
  • It provides a nice insight into chinese mathematics teaching
Several aspects in this study remind me of the Lesson Study approach and theories related to Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching (MKT), both of which are among my main research interests. Here is an abstract of their article:
In this article, we aim to examine the features of mathematics classroom instruction excellence valued in China. The popular approach to pursuing mathematics classroom instruction excellence through exemplary lesson development is also investigated to demonstrate the nature of teaching culture that has been advocated and nurtured in China. Features of an exemplary lesson are analyzed in detail, and the practicing teacher’s experience through participating in the development of the exemplary lesson is examined as well. Finally, the implications of developing exemplary lessons for pursuing excellence in mathematics classroom instruction as a culturally valued approach in China are also discussed.

New ways to solve old problems

A few conversations I've had and events I've attended over the past week led me to this blog post. It's a post that is primarily about thinking of new ways to solve old and new problems in the education realm in Malaysia.

The first conversation I had was with a friend and we were talking about smart people whom we both knew. I came to the conclusion that many of us make the unconscious link between being smart with having a high IQ or being book smart. This is not really surprising given that our whole education system is geared towards rewarding people who are book smart. But the older I get, the more I realize that emphasizing being book smart above other kinds of 'intelligence' is not a very smart thing to do, whether one is an educationist, a corporate leader, a politician or a parent. In any project / organization that one is involved in, I think it's necessary to have people with different kinds of 'intelligence' to achieve good outcomes. This kind of intelligence may be verbal, spatial, linguistic, inter-personal, etc... You cannot hope to put a group of book smart people in the same room who are from the same background and assume that you will get good results. It probably is better to put in people with different backgrounds and different types of 'intelligence', if you want to find new ways of solving old and new problems.

The second conversation I had was in an email exchange with different people discussing the merits and demerits of a 'Harvard' type approach towards research that is highly individualistic versus a 'Wisconsin' i.e. state school type approach towards research that is more collegial in nature. Many were in favor of a more collegial approach that is more productive on a person by person measure and perhaps also gives workers a better work life balance. We also discussed the possibility that if the collegial model were to be introduced in a Malaysian university, the 'free-rider' problem would be one of the main challenges. Within the collegial model, there still needs to be some level of accountability.

The third conversation I had was really in the form of a talk given by CNN Special Investigations anchor Soledad O'Brien. It was the final event during the Martin Luther King Jr (MLK) week at Duke. Ms. O'Brien had just finished covering the Obama inauguration as part of the CNN team. CNN had also just finished showing a series called Black in America in the run up to Obama's inauguration and MLK day - Ms. O'Brien was one of the key journalists in this series.

Ms. O'Brien said a few things that struck me. She said that having people of diverse backgrounds come together to work on a project usually results in a better product. And she's not only talking about racial diversity, she's also referring to diversity in terms of backgrounds, sexual preference, previous work experience, geographical origins, etc... She referred to the findings of Michigan Professor, Scott Page, who wrote a book arguing that diversity leads to better outcomes, using, of all things, mathematical models. She also talked about the experiments which Roland Fryer, the youngest tenured black professor at Harvard, was doing in schools in Dallas, where children were financially rewarded based on how many books they read. She gave this as an example of how important is it to 'think outside the box' in terms of finding solutions to the many problems society is facing and in fact, has been facing for the past X number of years. Thirdly, she also said that having diverse voices heard is not something easy because you have to somehow find the 'best' solution among all the ideas being proposed. Diversity is not about coming together to sing 'kumbaya'. It's much more complicated than that.

These three experiences I've had in the past week led me to think of how this might translate into trying to find solutions to problems which we're having in the education realm in Malaysia. I think some of the lessons I've learned over the pass week may apply in the Malaysian context. The lessons are - don't overemphasize book learning or being book smart, working in teams with proper accountability structures, diversity is good in terms of coming up with solutions and finally, thinking outside the box.

How would this apply to one particular problem which parents complain about time and time again - the problem of too many school kids spending too much time at cyber cafes playing games such as Starcraft, Warcraft, World of Warcraft, Counterstrike etc...? This problem has existed every since the internet was invented and cyber-cafes were established in Malaysia.

There have been calls to ban all cyber cafes or to impose restrictions which makes the cyber cafe owners liable for fines if kids wearing school uniforms were found on their premises. I think that these kinds of 'solutions' for this kind of 'problem' are far too blunt and do not demonstrate an understanding of why kids go to cyber cafes in the first place. If you ban cyber cafes, these kids may find other outlets for entertainment. Some of them may get involved in drugs or gangs. If you prevent them from wearing school uniforms while being in these cyber cafes, they will use change their clothes after school.

If we take to heart some of the lessons I learned over the past week, there would be many different kinds of 'solutions' that can be tried out to try to 'solve' this problem. First of all, you cannot just depend on MOE officials or parents to tackle this problem. You need people who actually play these games to be in your 'team' so that you can understand why kids actually play these games.

I have to admit that I love playing computer games including Starcraft and Warcraft but have stopped playing them since I want to finish my PhD this year. But I know friends who are white-collar workers and company owners who play Warcraft in their office on Friday evenings as part of their 'team-building' exercise. (That's their 'official' reason) If white collar workers are playing these games, without much detriment to their own work performance, can we really say that playing these games is a 'problem' for young kids?

The problem here has more to do with the fact that some kids are spending ALL their time playing these games and not enough time on schoolwork. If this is the case, can there be more creative solutions to solve this problem?

If I were an MOE official put in charge of tackling this problem, I would first get together a group of diverse 'stakeholders' - selected teachers, parents, kids, gamers, researchers, local politicians, entrepreneurs etc... - and ask them to come up with a list of solutions. Having a diverse group of people means that all voices will be heard. The kids will let the parents know that not all gaming is bad, the researchers will tell talk of different ways to incentivize the kids for doing homework and playing computer games, the local politicians will come up with creative ways of policing, the entrepreneurs will come up with ways of making money that will benefit them as well as the kids playing the games...

I can throw out some ideas which I've thought of myself which can definitely be refined in the context of a bigger group with more experience and local knowledge than myself. Some of these ideas include:

- Allowing kids to play some of these games in the computer labs in schools with the caveat that for every hour they are allowed to play, they have to read a book or finish a piece of homework which takes 1 or 2 hours to do
- Asking parents from the same neighborhood to network their own computers so that their kids can play against one another from the safety of their own homes. This way, parents can monitor how much they play and the kids themselves can play with one another without having to go to the cybercafes.
- Giving 'prepaid' cards to kids who do well in school so that they can redeem these cards at ministry approved cyber cafes. Or give these cards to kids in exchange for reading a certain number of books or improving their grades by a certain amount.

Some of these ideas may be stupid, some of them may be problematic to implement, some of them may need buy-in from the different stakeholders to succeed. My larger point is this - we need to find creative ways to solve some of the trickier problems that affect our education system. And we cannot adopt a one size fits all approach. What may work in KL / PJ may not work in Teluk Intan or Sekinchan or in Raub or Kelantan. What you need are people at the MOE who can get together the different stakeholders to that creative ideas can be generated and then implemented. Those which succeed should be continued, those which don't should be discarded. If these are done on a localized basis, then there's more room for experimentation. Just my 2 cents.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Tuskegee and the Obama Effect

By now you've all heard the fascinating news of a study (New York Times: "Study Sees An Obama Effect As Lifting Black Test-Takers") that seems to demonstrate an Obama effect on the black/white gap in test scores. In short, a team led by a Vanderbilt University researcher administered a series of 20 questions (drawn from verbal section of the GRE) shortly before Obama's nomination and again after his acceptance and then again after the election. Black performance on the test improved after Obama's acceptance, and rendered the black/white gap in test performance nonsignificant.

I'm the first to admit the potential for an Obama effect. Every time I hear him speak I think of the power of a role model, and dream of possible studies that could uncover such an effect.

But in this case, I'm not so sure what's being captured is an effect of Obama on the confidence of black students in their academic performance. Here's why:

(1) The students taking the test at each administration were different students. If the same kids took the test repeatedly, obviously we'd expect their scores to increase.

(2) According to the lead researcher, in a personal communique with me, while the pool of potential participants was constructed at time 1, the actual sample at each time was based on volunteers offered a monetary incentive to participate (what size incentive? I don't know).

There are more critical pieces of information missing as well:

(a) Whether the reasons for participation vs. non-participation differed by race, and are correlated with test-taking ability.

and

(b) Whether the rates of participation were similar for both racial groups.

What we do know is that ever since the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis (TSUS), African Americans are less likely than Whites to volunteer for participation in research. Given the known gaps in achievement, if they knew anything about what the study required they may've also simply lacked the confidence to participate. This is completely understandable. The question is, could it influence the findings in this study? Are there other plausible explanations for the change in test scores observed in the study?

Yes. Let me suggest just a few.

(1) A disproportionate effect of the economy on black's financial status. The study took place during a year of steady decline in the economic standing of many Americans. Is it possible that the money offered for participation wasn't enough to offset the concerns of higher-achieving black students about research (or to offset the opportunity costs associated with participation)? But that by time 2, the money was simply worth more (e.g. more effective as an incentive) and induced greater participation of black students? I'm positing that during the period whites were both less affected by changes in the economy and overall less averse to volunteering to take a test.

(2) An effect of Obama on black's trust in society, including researchers. So at time 1 the black students in the pool are generally more suspicious and only the lower-achievers are affected by the monetary incentive enough to overcome that suspicion and take the test. At time 2, they're feeling more goodwill towards the world, and higher-achieving black students are willing to participate.

(3) Maybe higher-achieving black students, when asked twice to do a study, tend to do it? I don't know if nonrespondents at time 1 were asked again.

These are just three ideas about how sample selection could bias these results. I have many more. What about the gender composition of the samples? ( Black men have lower test scores on average and are generally less likely to participate in studies. )

I want to quantify the good feelings we're all having in the post-Bushie world too. I get the motivation. But I don't think we should get too carried with feel-good stories on studies that have not yet undergone peer review.

Musical Elective of the Week

The Musical Elective of the Week is Liam Finn.

Finn is a 25-year-old Kiwi singer/songwriter. Not only does he have a most excellent first name, but this guy can rock! Probably best known as the eldest son of singer/songwriter extraordinaire and Crowded House founder/lead singer Neil Finn, Liam laid down the gauntlet with his first solo album, I'll Be Lightning, released in January 2008 in the U.S. He was named one of Rolling Stone magazine's 10 Artists to Watch for 2008.
Recorded with a mixing deck that once belonged to the Who, I'll Be Lightning melds Elliott Smith-style melodies with loosey-goosey execution and the big, airy harmonies of yacht rock. Finn plays every instrument on the album — and during live shows. Triggering loops he creates via pedals, he'll riff on guitar, go nuts on theremin and pummel a drum kit for a one-man-band extravaganza.
Finn is an unbelievable persona in concert, literally doing everything on stage and making enough noise to make you believe that is an entire band up there. I saw him open for Crowded House at the House of Blues in Chicago back in 2007 and was spellbound. (He later opened for Eddie Vedder in the U.S. last year.)

I'll Be Lightning is a difficult album to categorize, parts rock, folk, and experimental. Some of my favorite tracks include the first three -- "Better To Be," "Second Chance," and "Gather To The Chapel" -- as well as the Beatle-esque "Energy Spent" and "Music Moves My Feet."

Finn will be part of the very exciting, upcoming Seven Worlds Collide album featuring his dad (Neil Finn), members of Radiohead (Ed O'Brien and Phil Selway), members of Wilco (including Jeff Tweedy), KT Tunstall, Johnny Marr (of the Smiths and Modest Mouse), Sebastian Steinberg (of Soul Coughing), and others. Recording was done over the holidays in Auckland, New Zealand and several concerts were performed. Proceeds will benefit Oxfam International.

Check out more about Liam Finn at his web site.
Better to be, bigger than the other

Heart on your sleeve and hat on your head

I want to see you playing with your shadow

Hypnotise me with every step

--"Better To Be," I'll Be Lightning (2008)
Link to past Musical Electives of the Week.

Treatment of Transfers

What to do, what to do about those pesky community college students? Their graduation rates are so low, they lack big ambitions, they bring those families and kids and jobs, they're "older," they're poorer, they're loan averse... no wonder their transfer rates to 4-year schools are so low!

Sound familiar? To those of you familiar with the extended policy and academic debate about the educational opportunities created by or diverted by community colleges, well, it should.

I reported Friday about the increasing numbers of students changing colleges. And yet, and yet...here's an excerpt from a recent New York Times online chat with a couple of admissions gurus from 4-year colleges:
QUESTION: I’m curious as to how admissions criteria are altered or shifted in importance for a transfer applicant compared with a freshman applicant.

QUESTION: How are transfer applicants from community colleges viewed in the admissions process? What advice would you offer these applicants?

ANSWERS:
Mr. Poch of Pomona: There are huge variations in transfer student possibilities from institution to institution. Some have lots of room and some little or none. USC enrolls more than 1000 transfer students each year. Pomona has room for 10 to 15. Obviously different factors affect both of these patterns and common answers will be hard to find.
Transferring to Pomona is tough. There are proportionally many fewer spaces than there are for first year students in huge part because of the high graduation rate of our incoming first years. Space doesn’t open up. We look at the high school record, especially for those seeking to transfer as sophomores. We look closely at the college record and the extent to which the student has pursued a general education program which would leave them time to dedicate the time they and we would wish to their electives and their major when they enroll at Pomona. We will explore the reasons for transfer and to understand as best we may about why Pomona and how the student sees life changing in our educational environment. Are they transferring FROM something or TO something?

Mr. Brenzel of Yale: Our unusual system of residential colleges makes the freshman year and sophomore years critical to our undergraduate program. So we maintain only a very small transfer program, limited to 24 places each year.

Mr. Syverson of Lawrence: In the case of transfers, the bulk of the academic evaluation focuses on the college record. We welcome transfer applicants from community colleges and treat them essentially the same as transfer applicants from four-year colleges.

What is wrong here? Oh, let me count the ways:

1. Mr. Pomona--A nice back-handed slam against USC for admitting plenty of transfer students, by not-so-subtly suggesting that only poor retention rates could lead to another places for transfer students (Pomona's 6 year grad rate is 93%, USC's is 84%). Not true: underclassmen require different classes and services than upperclassmen. Schools often find they can fit more upperclassmen on a campus even when retention rates are quite high.

2. Mr. Pomona again-- Oh, beware that wayward transfer student who is just trying to escape from a crappy school and come running to yours... Yeah, we all know about those community college transfer students banging on the doors of 4-year schools like Pomona, just dying to run from their community college

3. Mr. Yale-- Yeah, I'm sure the 1st two years of Yale make it so different that students who did their first two years elsewhere could never merit your precious degree.

4. Mr. Lawrence-- Why treat applicants from community colleges the same as those from 4-year colleges? Why is this something you are showing off, like it's a good thing?

Bottom line- why aren't more kids transferring? Open your eyes: it's all about preserving privilege. Make the kids spend more time on our campus before they can get a degree (read: pay more money to our school). Keep out those bottom-dwelling community college goers who might try to sneak past the gates. Watch out, in all fairness, students who had an opportunity to earn a BA must be treated the same as those coming from a school that doesn't grant one!

At least there it all is, in the New York Times!

This is too funny

From the NY Times. The whole article is worth reading. Especially if you have a high school sense of humor like me.

Friday, January 23, 2009

What I'm Worried About



Post #2 in an ongoing series...

This month I had several friends granted tenure. Which led me to think, what if I don't get it?

This is the kind of torture exercise I seem to enjoy wallowing in, so I looked up some statistics. Did you know:

Among 1997-1998 tenure-track entrants at 10 of the top research universities (specifically: Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Northwestern, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers and my own UW-Madison)....

Only 53% were awarded tenure by 2004-2005?

That tenure rates were 8 percentage points higher for men, compared to women, and 2 percentage points higher for non-minorities, compared to minorities?

Sure, some will raise the reasonable excuse that folks fall off the tenure track long before their year to go up for tenure. This is especially true for women who "opt out" (again, gag me), to go home.

It's next to impossible to find hard data on the percent of people who, having given 6+ years of their life to family/exercise/pleasure-sacrificing efforts all in the name of job security suddenly find themselves turned down-- and without a job? I know, in this economic climate those of employed should simply be grateful- heck, we could be tenured and laid off, too.

But it's simply nauseating to think about where the bar is now set, how many reams of pubs one is supposed to have, and yet how insanely political, personal, and downright random the process remains. It's enough to make one stay up far too late blogging, instead of caving into sleep.

A Win for Science

The Texas State Board of Education yesterday voted down an attempt to weaken the teaching of evolution in public school science classrooms. Read the full account in the Dallas Morning News.

In a major defeat for social conservatives, a sharply divided State Board of Education voted Thursday to abandon a longtime state requirement that high school science teachers cover what some critics consider to be "weaknesses" in the theory of evolution.

Under the science curriculum standards recommended by a panel of science educators and tentatively adopted by the board, biology teachers and biology textbooks would no longer have to cover the "strengths and weaknesses" of Charles Darwin's theory that man evolved from lower forms of life.

See yesterday's post ("Onward, Christian Soldiers!") on this some topic - prior to the Board's vote.

Winners: Science, Students, Teachers

Losers: Governor Rick Perry, Social Conservatives

Ensuring Real Education

It's been months since his PR folks sent me Real Education but I'm finally ready to weigh in on C. Murray's new treatise. Far too many naive bloggers think Murray's hit the nail on the head.

So here's my take: Murray is an opponent of expanding formal education, and especially a college-for-all culture that broadly promotes college aspirations. He argues that academic degrees reflect students’ general cognitive and social skills rather than what they learned in college or how well they will perform on the job. But even though in some sense credentials do act as signals and of course the skills of college graduates are not entirely created by colleges, there is still good evidence that what students learn in school has an invaluable, positive impact on their long-term life outcomes.

Moreover, Murray offers no practical alternatives. He argues that employers should develop testing instruments to better assess skills for specific jobs when, in fact, these assessments already exist in many occupations and organizations. Where such assessment tools are being used, they are at best very weak predictors of worker performance. The bottom line is that formal education both creates important skills and provides signals for employers that are quite valuable.

You won't find me arguing for an increase in meaningless credentialing nor advocating that college to become compulsory for everyone. My take is that by setting expectations for sub-baccalaureate outcomes and equipping community colleges with the resources needed to achieve those outcomes, we can enable a revitalized focus on student learning. I mean both the forms of general and specialized learning needed to perform specific jobs, and the kind of skills that all citizens need, and that colleges are best positioned to provide.

So in conclusion, no-- Murray's Losing Ground didn't change my opinion of welfare, and it sure isn't changing my opinion about schooling. But I do thank the publishers, since Real Education has evolved into a tasty chew treat for my puppy.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Not Coming Back for More?

According to ACT, Inc (Midwestern counterpart to the SAT), the number of college freshmen returning for a second year at their original "4-year" institution is on the decline.

Shocking, I know... (Ok, I'm being ironic-- I wrote a dissertation about the "swirling" students who attend multiple schools, and have been quite vocal about the importance of mobility to debates over student success and degree completion.)

Approximately 2/3 of students who enter 4-year colleges stick around for another year. That number used to be (somewhat) higher (closer to 70-75%). Something to get worked up about? Depends on how you approach the question.

If you're a higher ed administrator focused on dollars and cents, sure you're not going to like it. Fewer returning students means more empty seats in upper-level courses, which you should but probably aren't filling with transfer students. It also means your institutional degree completion rates are lower.

If you're an educational reformer focused on student success, you probably see things differently. Before getting upset, you'd first want to know: Are students leaving school 1 to drop out of college? Or do they move to school 2, find a better fit (financially, academically, socially?) and end up with a degree? Are students moving because moving is a fact of their life, they've always been mobile, and they're not attached to colleges in the "traditional" sense of one student/one school? Or, are schools serving them poorly, eventually encouraging their departure?

My own work has identified some causes for concern. Students do not change schools in equitable ways-- meaning that the more advantaged kids tend to leave one 4-year college for another, and not suffer much in terms of BA completion, while the less advantaged (read: lower levels of parental education) tend to leave 4-year colleges after struggling academically in their first year (this is NET of high school prep, btw), and end up at a community college. Those folks hardly ever get degrees. All of this is described in my 2006 paper in Sociology of Education, and a forthcoming paper in the same journal.

The ACT folks say the trend "suggests that more students may be opting out of college during or after their first year." First, as a sociologist let me gag openly at the idea of "opting out." Second, having not accounted for changes in the composition of college freshmen that could account for changes in retention rates, it's not clear what we do with this trend.

From a research perspective, we should also ask why we're stuck with ACT data on this one-- they aren't capturing enrollment beyond school 1 (as we can with national datasets such as the NELS) and so can't dig underneath the trendlines. Why are we stuck? Because the kind of longitudinal student unit record data we'd need to do the analysis is only collected by the feds every 10 or so years-- hard to establish much of a trend with that. If you just compare NLS-72, HSB, and NELS, it doesn't look like much of a trend... More micro, more interesting.

So we're left with a bunch of hypotheses, for now. The ACT guy thinks students leave 4-year colleges for financial reasons. Maybe. My own analyses suggest that family income doesn't have much to do with it though. We can sort of test this in my study, by estimating a causal effect of financial aid on first year retention. With the first cohort of kids in the middle of the school year right now, you'll have to bear with me... I'll try to find the answers.

In the meantime, let's get focused on whether and when students graduate. Not where they finish. That is: a student-focused rather than school-focused approach to success. Whaddya say?

Onward, Christian Soldiers!

Today's New York Times ("In Texas, a Line in the Curriculum Revives Evolution Debate") reports on attempts to discredit evolution iin the Lone Star State.

No longer do religious conservatives employ an in-your-face strategy, but take a craftier approach to undermining science. In Texas, it involves taking advantage of a passage in the state curriculum that requires students to critique the "strengths and weaknesses" of scientific theories. From there, they attempt to bring religious teachings into public school science classrooms.

In the past, the conservatives on the education board have lacked the votes to change textbooks. This year, both sides say, the final vote, in March, is likely to be close.

Even as federal courts have banned the teaching of creationism and intelligent design in biology courses, social conservatives have gained 7 of 15 seats on the Texas board in recent years, and they enjoy the strong support of Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican.

The chairman of the board, Dr. Don McLeroy, a dentist, pushed in 2003 for a more skeptical version of evolution to be presented in the state’s textbooks, but could not get a majority to vote with him. Dr. McLeroy has said he does not believe in Darwin’s theory and thinks that Earth’s appearance is a recent geologic event, thousands of years old, not 4.5 billion as scientists contend.

On the surface, the debate centers on a passage in the state’s curriculum that requires students to critique all scientific theories, exploring “the strengths and weaknesses” of each. Texas has stuck to that same standard for 20 years, having originally passed it to please religious conservatives. In practice, teachers rarely pay attention to it.

This year, however, a panel of teachers assigned to revise the curriculum proposed dropping those words, urging students instead to “analyze and evaluate scientific explanations using empirical evidence.”

Scientists and advocates for religious freedom say the battle over the curriculum is the tip of a spear. Social conservatives, the critics argue, have tried to use the “strengths and weaknesses” standard to justify exposing students to religious objections in the guise of scientific discourse.

“The phrase ‘strengths and weaknesses’ has been spread nationally as a slogan to bring creationism in through the back door,” said Eugenie C. Scott of the National Center for Science in Education, a California group that opposes watering down evolution in biology classes.

In my last post, I gave kudos to Alabama Governor Bob Riley, a Republican, for his leadership on teacher quality. In this post, let me aim barbs at Republican Texas Governor Rick Perry for appointing the likes of Dr. McLeroy to public office. As Bugs Bunny might say, "What a maroon!" That goes for both of them.

Image courtesy of popsucker.net.

Background:

7/21/2008: Praise Jesus (In Public Schools)

6/3/2008: "NY Times: "Opponents of Evolution Are Adopting New Strategy"

Who Says Democratic Governors Have A Monopoly on Education Policy?

In January 2006 Alabama Governor Bob Riley initiated one of the more thoughtful gubernatorial commissions focused on teacher quality in recent years. And the commission didn't produce a document to sit on a shelf or fatten up a web site, but its work is on-going and is having impact.

In just three years, the Governor's Commission on Quality Teaching -- led by former National Teacher of the Year Dr. Betsy Rogers -- has already impacted public policy in the Heart of Dixie. Its initial recommendations, released in November 2006, were central in leading to the creation of a statewide teacher mentor program and the development of new standards for the teaching profession.

The commission's latest recommendations focus on creating a professional pathway for teachers in addition to maintaining support for the Alabama Teacher Mentoring Program, continuing a biannual Teaching and Learning Conditions Survey, and reforming teacher preparation.

Read the Commission's complete report here.

1. Professional Pathways for Alabama Teachers - The Commission recommends that two systems be selected as “demonstration sites” to begin implementation of the Professional Pathways system. The Commission would raise $75,000 from private sources for a planning grant to work on development with the two systems beginning in the summer of 2009.

2. Improve the Quality of Teacher Preparation - This set of recommendations seeks to structure meaningful partnerships between Colleges of Education and P-12 schools and districts in order to improve both the academic and clinical preparation of prospective teachers. This includes a strong focus on Alabama-specific initiatives, such as the Alabama Reading Initiative and the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI). They also aim to increase the accountability of teacher preparation institutions for the quality of their graduates.

3. Consolidate and Expand Teacher Recruitment Efforts - These recommendations include a centralized and user-friendly teacher recruitment website, student-produced ads to highlight the opportunities provided by the teaching profession, and a pilot seminar course in teaching for high school students.

4. Improving and Expanding Alternative Certification - These recommendations seek to create new routes that encourage the best and the brightest to enter the teaching profession. They include (a) a partnership with Teach for America to bring talented young people from across the country to teach in high-needs areas in Alabama, (b) improving the quality of our current Alternative Baccalaureate Certification, and (c) creation of an adjunct certification to allow individuals with recognized expertise and experience in high needs disciplines to work part time in public schools.

5. Maintain and expand the Alabama Teacher Mentoring Program - The Commission recommends the continued funding of Alabama’s highly-successful mentoring program for first-year teachers and the addition of a low-cost program for second-year teachers that uses small groups to continue their training and enhance small learning communities in schools..

6. Adopt a new definition for professional development - The Commission recommends that the State Board of Education adopt the National Staff Development Council’s definition of professional development to clarify, enhance, and support the existing Professional Development Standards.

7. Continue the biennial administration of the Take 20 Teaching and Learning Conditions Survey - The Commission feels it is critical that we institutionalize the biennial administration of our teaching and learning conditions survey to all educators so that leaders can continually assess the state of their schools and plan for constant improvement. The Take 20 survey was recommended by the Commission in 2007 and first administered to all Alabama educators in 2008.

The idea of a professional pathway for teachers isn't a completely new idea. In 2001, under the leadership of then Governor Tom Vilsack, a Democrat, Iowa developed a teacher career ladder, a multi-tiered licensure system, as reported by Education Week. But due to funding constraints, this initiative was never fully implemented. The only parts that were enacted were a small pay hike and a teacher mentoring program.

But this idea is the wave of the future. Fewer and fewer young people are going into teaching as a life-long career. And fewer are going into teaching because of the limited opportunities for advancement while staying in the classroom. Opportunities to advance in the profession and be compensated for teaching excellence and leadership roles are needed. Right now, given the typical steps and lanes pay structure, the only way to make this happen is to move into educational administration or to leave public education entirely.

Although Democrats are often framed to be more pro-education than Republicans, and in reality often are, Alabama's Riley is a notable exception. His leadership has led to some real steps forward in public education in Alabama.

The Commission's efforts were recently featured in Education Week's Teacher Beat blog, in a post authored by Vaishali Honawar as well.

Re-mythologizing mathematics

David Wagner and Beth Herbel-Eisenmann have written an article entitled Re-mythologizing mathematics through attention to classroom positioning. the article was published online in Educational Studies in Mathematics on Tuesday. Here is their article abstract:
With our conceptualization of Harré and van Langenhove’s (1999) positioning theory, we draw attention to immanent experience and read transcendent discursive practices through the moment of interaction. We use a series of spatial images as metaphors to analyze the way positioning is conceptualized in current mathematics education literature and the way it may be alternatively conceptualized. This leads us to claim that changing the way mathematics is talked about and changing the stories (or myths) told about mathematics is necessary for efforts to change the way mathematics is done and the way it is taught.

Re-mythologizing mathematics

David Wagner and Beth Herbel-Eisenmann have written an article entitled Re-mythologizing mathematics through attention to classroom positioning. the article was published online in Educational Studies in Mathematics on Tuesday. Here is their article abstract:
With our conceptualization of Harré and van Langenhove’s (1999) positioning theory, we draw attention to immanent experience and read transcendent discursive practices through the moment of interaction. We use a series of spatial images as metaphors to analyze the way positioning is conceptualized in current mathematics education literature and the way it may be alternatively conceptualized. This leads us to claim that changing the way mathematics is talked about and changing the stories (or myths) told about mathematics is necessary for efforts to change the way mathematics is done and the way it is taught.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

The Dream and The Inauguration

Media outlets are reporting that Americans believe that Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream has been fulfilled as a result of Barack Obama's election to the presidency. In fact, a new CNN poll found that more than two thirds of African-Americans believe that to be true.
The poll found 69 percent of blacks said King's vision has been fulfilled in the more than 45 years since his 1963 "I have a dream" speech -- roughly double the 34 percent who agreed with that assessment in a similar poll taken last March.
But let us not forget that economic justice was a central component of King's vision. In fact, at the time of his assassination, King (with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference) was focused on the "Poor People's Campaign," an effort to promote a bill of rights for poor Americans.

The election of Barack Obama by itself does not erase the fact that economic inequality in our nation is at historic highs. This inequality disproportionately affects the black community. There is work to be done. Educational opportunity provides a path to success in the labor market and resulting economic gains. President Obama has a tremendous opportunity to be not just a physical embodiment of King's dream but to change national policies that feed inequality, both in opportunities and in outcomes.

Monday, January 19, 2009

A*Star Suicide

Read this bit of sad news. Got the link from a friend. A* scholar kills himself over a relationship gone bad. No angle on this. Just sad that someone so young would kill himself over a relationship.

Inauguration Nation

Just finished watching the installment of the HBO John Adams series where both Washington and Adams are inaugurated. Two words: Dork Heaven. Not sure about the accuracy of the portrayal (haven't gotten to that part in the McCullough book yet), but in the series Washington is sworn in before masses of cheering patriots. Adams is sworn in before Congress, and gets his most rousing applause during his inaugural address when he praises Washington.

I read in a New Yorker article that Adams' inaugural address was both "indefinite" (a large percentage of the words in the address were "if") and "cumbrous" (the third to last sentence was over 700 words long).

Meanwhile, if that's not enough inaugural trivia for you, check out these "Quick 10 Facts" about Presidential inaugurations from Mental Floss. My favorite: Andrew Johnson was so drunk he couldn't speak clearly during his inauguration.

Gem #4: Hardy's Apology

This gem from the history of mathematics is more recent. It was published in 1940 by British mathematician G.H. Hardy. The book/essay was written when Hardy (then 62) felt that he no longer had the ability to contribute to the field of mathematics. A main theme in the book is concerning mathematical beauty, and he believed that the most beautiful mathematics was that, which had no application! Luckily, this book is also in the public domain, and you can read it in below (or download the pdf):

A Mathematician's Apology

Gem #4: Hardy's Apology

This gem from the history of mathematics is more recent. It was published in 1940 by British mathematician G.H. Hardy. The book/essay was written when Hardy (then 62) felt that he no longer had the ability to contribute to the field of mathematics. A main theme in the book is concerning mathematical beauty, and he believed that the most beautiful mathematics was that, which had no application! Luckily, this book is also in the public domain, and you can read it in below (or download the pdf):

A Mathematician's Apology

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Ed Links Brain Stuff Edition (II)

Brain Mechanisms Of Social Conformity

New research reveals the brain activity that underlies our tendency to "follow the crowd." The study provides intriguing insight into how human behavior can be guided by the perceived behavior of other individuals.

Evolution Of New Brain Area Enables Complex Movements

A new area of the cerebral cortex has evolved to enable man and higher primates to pick up small objects and deftly use tools. The brain's primary motor cortex turns out to have neighboring "old" and "new" parts. In most animals, including cats, rats and some monkeys, the old primary motor cortex controls movement indirectly through the circuitry of the spinal cord.

Spotless Mind? Unwanted Memories Might Be Erasable Without Harming Other Brain Functions

A molecule known to preserve memories -- PKMzeta -- specifically stores complex, high-quality memories that provide detailed information about an animal's location, fears and actions, but does not control the ability to process or express this information. This finding suggests that PKMzeta erasure that is designed to target specific debilitating memories could be effective against the offending memory while sparing the computational function of brain.

How Mirror Neurons Allow Us To Learn And Socialize By Going Through The Motions In The Head

The old adage that we can only learn how to do something by trying it ourselves may have to be revised in the light of recent discoveries in neuroscience. It turns out that humans, primates, some birds, and possibly other higher animals have mirror neurons that fire in the same pattern whether performing or just observing a task. These mirror neurons clearly play an important role in learning motor tasks involving hand eye coordination, and possibly also acquisition of language skills, as well as being required for social skills, but the exact processes involved are only just being discovered.

How The Brain Thinks About Crime And Punishment

A new study reveals that humans use different neural mechanisms for determining criminal responsibility and assigning an appropriate punishment. The research, published in the journal Neuron, provides fascinating insight into brain systems that may explain how thousands of years of reliance on human sanctions to enforce social norms gave rise to our current criminal justice system.

Unlocking The Mysteries Of Memory

Stop and think for a moment. What do you remember about your breakfast this morning? One part of your brain will recall the smell of coffee brewing, while another will remember your partner's smile while walking out the door. How does the brain weave together these fragments, and how does it bring them back to conscious life?

Poor Children's Brain Activity Resembles That Of Stroke Victims, EEG Shows

Prefrontal cortex activity in children from low socioeconomic levels is lower than in similar children from well-off families. The brain differences, documented through EEGs, are dramatic: the prefrontal cortexes of poor kids 9 and 10 years of age react to novel stimuli in the same way as the brain of a stroke victim. The researchers believe this is fixable, however.

Poor Children's Brain Activity Resembles That Of Stroke Victims, EEG Shows

Prefrontal cortex activity in children from low socioeconomic levels is lower than in similar children from well-off families. The brain differences, documented through EEGs, are dramatic: the prefrontal cortexes of poor kids 9 and 10 years of age react to novel stimuli in the same way as the brain of a stroke victim. The researchers believe this is fixable, however.

'Wiring' In The Brain Influences Personality

Some people are constantly seeking a new kick; some prefer to stick to tried and tested things. Which group you belong to seems to be connected, inter alia, with the 'wiring' of specific centers of the brain. This was discovered by scientists at the University of Bonn using a new method. Even how much acceptance people seek is apparently also determined by nerve fibers in the brain.

Evolution Of The Visual System Is Key To Abstract Art

Famous works of abstract art achieve popularity by using shapes that resonate with the neural mechanisms in the brain linked to visual information, a psychologist has discovered.

Forgotten But Not Gone: How The Brain Re-learns

Thanks to our ability to learn and to remember, we can perform tasks that other living things can not even dream of. However, we are only just beginning to get the gist of what really goes on in the brain when it learns or forgets something. What we do know is that changes in the contacts between nerve cells play an important role. But can these structural changes account for that well-known phenomenon that it is much easier to re-learn something that was forgotten than to learn something completely new?

Seeing A Brain As It Learns To See

A brain isn't born fully organized. It builds its abilities through experience, making physical connections between neurons and organizing circuits to store and retrieve information in milliseconds for years afterwards. Now that process has been caught in the act for the first time by a research team that watched a naïve brain organize itself to interpret images of motion.

Been There, Done That: Brain Mechanism Predicts Ability To Generalize

A new study reveals how the brain can connect discrete but overlapping experiences to provide a rich integrated history that extends far beyond individually experienced events and may help to direct future choices.

Blindsight: How Brain Sees What You Do Not See

Blindsight is a phenomenon in which patients with damage in the primary visual cortex of the brain can tell where an object is although they claim they cannot see it. Scientists now provide compelling evidence that blindsight occurs because visual information is conveyed bypassing the primary visual cortex.

How Memories Are Made, And Recalled

What makes a memory? Single cells in the brain, for one thing. For the first time, scientists have recorded individual brain cells in the act of calling up a memory, thus revealing where in the brain a specific memory is stored and how the brain is able to recreate it.

Scientists Watch As Listener's Brain Predicts Speaker's Words

Scientists have shown for the first time that our brains automatically consider many possible words and their meanings before we've even heard the final sound of the word.