Teaching: The Importance of Sociology

This week’s post is inspired by “This I Believe.” This I believe is a project “engaging people in…discussing the core values and beliefs” of their lives. This project helps explain my core beliefs about sociology and education. I entered the field of sociology because I wanted to teach, but I did not start with a sociology major. In high school I realized that I wanted to motivate people to do great things. Through this I discovered that I wanted to teach, specifically high school math. The first two and half years at the University of Southern California were spent studying math. After completing all the concrete math courses, like calculus and linear algebra, the classes that were left were abstract theoretical courses. These classes were not enjoyable to me, so I decided to switch majors. The switch from math to sociology occurred because of my desire to teach, and sociology provides an excellent understanding of people and situations. Through the courses this semester, sociology of childhood, deviance, and theories, I am learning how children think and react in situations. This will provide me with tools to better educate students.

Through observations in elementary and high schools, I have seen the effect of a sociological background. My mentor, Dr. Barbara Gereboff was a sociology major in college and then continued to get her graduate degree in education. She is now a principal of an elementary/middle school. I have seen her work with students and she has a better understanding of social situations and is better equipped to deal with different types of students and families. Compared to the other principals that I have had, she has far surpassed them on the level of understanding her students. If more teachers had this background then classes would run more smoothly and the needs of more students would be met.

To be a good teacher one must first have a mastery of the material one wishes teach. I want to teach math and I have taken all concrete math classes available, I feel that that this is enough knowledge of math to teach all levels of high school. Second, a teacher must be able to control the classroom and all the situations that will arise. This does not come easily for some people, this is why sociology is helpful; one can predict certain situations and fix them quicker and more easily than others, providing more time for actual studies. Classes like childhood sociology are especially helpful. This course teaches how children and childhood are conceptualized and perceived from an adult perspective. Knowing this I will be able to take more of children’s actions into account.

Two important sociologists that have influenced my beliefs are Barrie Thorne and Valerie Ann Moore. In Barrie Thorne’s “Girls Boys Together…But Mostly Apart: Gender Arrangements in Elementary Schools,” Thorne explains through her observations in her ethnography how she saw children created their own ideas about gender. In Valerie Ann Moore’s “The Collaborative Emergence of Race in Children’s Play: A Case of Two Summer Camps” she explores how children construct race at summer camp.

Knowing and understanding these situations help prepare teachers for situations in the classroom. It help prepares them to understand children’s backgrounds and why they act the way they do. Sociology provides tools to overcome many obstacles brought by students in school. The amount of research and information on these subjects reinforce my core belief that sociology and education go hand in hand. I do not feel that educators today are fully prepared for the situations they will encounter. But those will a sociological background will have a much easier time fixing the problems. I know that these skills that I will acquire from my sociology major will benefit me in the future.

Problems in Math Education: Who’s to blame, instructors or textbooks?

This is a short message to inform you, the readers, that this week’s blog will be slightly different from the past two. Instead of consisting of a blog entry responding to current events in the educational/sociological field, it will respond to two recent blog entries. The two entries, Math education: An Inconvenient Truth and In Search of Constructivist Teachers, relate to the first blog, Decline in American Math Levels: Myth or Fact? The former blog explains that some math textbooks are missing important information, for example the mathematical symbol pi, and since the information is not in the textbook that information is not taught. The later examines the concept of constructivist theory and why it is not found in a mathematical context. The two entries are connected because each asserts blame of problems in math education on different sources. Below are the responses to the two entries. Perhaps both poor math textbooks and lack of new educational methods produce the problems in math education.

Comment on Math Education: An Inconvenient Truth

Wanting to be a math teacher in the near future, I find this extremely disturbing. It is unfortunate that children miss out on important information because textbooks lack the needed curriculum. Like you said, this is not uncommon. Here is a table, slightly outdated, but still relevant, that shows the quality of math textbooks. Most of the textbooks are shown to be of poor quality. It is so distressing that such an important subject as mathematics lacks adequate textbooks. Also, as one response to your blog said, many times outside sources are looked down upon by head masters and department heads. In all the math classes I have taken, in both high school and college, I could have easily never have gone to class because the lecture was straight from the book. I was not aware of any missing information because it was not pointed out or included by the teacher. Better textbooks are greatly needed to bridge the gap in math education.

Comment on In Search of Constructivist Teachers

I am a student at the University of California and for the first two and a half years of college I was a math major. Every single class I took was taught in the exact same way. They were all traditional math classes; sitting at desks, facing the chalkboard, while the professor goes through the textbook, word for word. As long as I can remember all the math classes I have taken from first grade up have been in the same format. For me this way of teaching works, but for other students it does not. With limited time, space, and finances there really does not seem to be a better way. I cannot begin to imagine how constructivist theory can be applied to math education because the traditional format is so engrained in mind. But it is important to figure out different ways of teaching because not every child learns the same way. I hope that in the near future there will be some ways to change the format of math education so that more students will succeed and enjoy what they are learning.

Private Schools: Dual Curriculums and Religion

Growing up in a private Jewish day school I always wondered what it would be like in a public school. What would it be like to only have to take half the amount of classes and not have to go to prayers every day? Let me paint a picture in your mind of the typical day in my elementary school: classes would begin at 8am in the English home room. Until lunch I would have English, history, math, and science as well as morning prayers. After lunch I would go to my Hebrew home room where I would have Hebrew, Jewish history, Torah (the Old Testament) and Rabbinics. But public schools were not the only schools that interested me, I was also curious about how other religious schools ran. Catholic schools are run similarly to Jewish day schools; there are bible, Latin, and religious history classes as well as prayers. I wondered if students like me, in religious day schools, were being prepared when we only got half the math, science, English and history education that children in public schools got.

The issue is do students of private schools receive an adequate education when they spend significantly less time on secular subjects? Although religious private schools spend less time on subjects they need less time. The reason is because the class sizes are smaller and the student teacher ration is significantly lower than that of public schools. The size of the class made up for the shorter class period because there was more student teacher interaction and the students were able to grasp the information quicker. I researched two Los Angeles Jewish day schools, Kadima Hebrew Academy and Heschel West, two Los Angeles Christian private schools, West Angeles Christian Academy and Chaminade High School, and two Los Angeles public schools, Hale middle school and Pomelo Drive Elementary. The average teacher student ratio at the Jewish day schools are seven, the ratio at the private Christian schools are sixteen and the ratio at the public schools are thirty six. As shown on the left, many private school classrooms have teacher assistants or teacher aids so that there is more one on one interaction with the students. The size of the classroom makes a tremendous difference in education because no student falls behind. They are all provided sufficient time and help on an individual basis.

But education does not just include classes in school. What about education outside of the classroom, extra curricular activities? Do private school children have time for extra curricular activities when they have double the work load of those children in public school? The answer is yes. I concluded that private school children still have time for extra curricular activities by researching the after school opportunities at private schools. This picture shows one of Kadima Hebrew Academy’s after school sport programs, soccer. But sports are not the only activities available. The Chaminade website shows a plentiful amount of activities available to students ; art club, band, drama club, just to name a few. These private schools offer similar after school activities. However, the private schools cannot offer as many programs as the public schools due to shear numbers. But these programs are still available to private school children through other private organizations.

When parents decide whether to send their child to a private religious school or a public school the main issue is not money; it is the quality of the education. This is why it is important to note that the education at private schools and the opportunities at private schools are very similar if to that of public schools. Children will not miss out on important events in their life for going to private school, they will just experience them in a different atmosphere.

Decline in American Math Levels: Myth or Fact?

It is a popular belief that American math education is rapidly declining, both within the United States and in comparison to other countries; because of this belief there has been heated debate over how to fix the American math education problem in the past two decades. President Bush, in 2002, implemented “No Child Left Behind” to help increase math and other academic scores. In truth, America is slightly above average in the math category. Therefore, math education in America is not declining; rather other nations’ math education is increasing. However, being slightly above average is not sufficient. While this is an important issue, the goal of this entry is to determine whether of not math levels have been declining, not whether or not math levels are sufficient; that is another topic.

In the past year SAT math scores have dropped by two points for both males and females. Without going into more depth it would appear that American math levels are dropping. But an important fact to remember is that recently the SATs changed and fewer students are taking them twice. It is typical for scores to increase about 30 points when the SATs are taken a second time. In comparison to high school students in other countries, American students are well below the average in math scores. But according to John Mackey, the Carnegie Mellon’s assistant head of mathematical sciences, “Americans catch up, generally, as curriculum continues.” Almost all comparisons of American math levels to other countries have been K-12 and have not included college students. American students in American college and university tend to score similarly in math as college students in other countries. The scores used for comparisons have mostly been from SAT and AP exams. But the SAT and AP exams are standardized tests used only in the United States. To have an accurate score levels, the same test would need to be administered in all countries. But the chance of this happening is not likely. However, the type of test and age of the student is not the only factor, location also plays a part.

Different parts of the country have different definitions of what student proficiency is. One example is South Carolina and North Carolina. North Carolina has low standard of proficiency while South Carolina has higher standards. The same student doing well in North Carolina would most likely fail in South Carolina. This is proven by looking at SAT scores. Places that show higher SAT scores also show higher educational standards. There are some locations where math is not as important or focused on. This is the same with countries. Some countries find math education more important than other subjects while other countries focus on different skills. Many times subjects like the humanities and the arts are compromised to allow more time and concentration for math. While American schools do not provide great amounts of time for the humanities and arts, they do devote time to social sciences. American schools have a diverse education system and have content standards that must be achieved for every subject. Although it is important to have a diverse education, it is also important to have a strong math and science background with the rise in technology. Fewer American students are interested in math and science creating an even larger gap. Although, there is less of interest in these subjects, American levels are not declining, they are remaining stagnate.

At a quick glance it appears that American math levels are declining and that American students are falling behind students in other industrialized nations. This would appear true because of statistics and test scores. But at a closer look, taking in consideration the type of testing, the age of students, and what is academically important, American math levels are not declining. But while American math levels remain the same other nations’ math levels increase. Although American math levels are not declining it is still a growing concern since the rise in technology. Although math levels are not declining, Americans do need to catch up with their international counterparts if they wish to partake in this high tech world.