Category: theory

Going with Your Gut

I teach university courses in mathematical problem solving at St. Francis Xavier University during my Summer break. The classes involve initiating numerous problem solving episodes and then interrogating and filtering our collective experience through the lens of current theory in the field. This structure provides plenty of opportunity to workshop new ways to launch tasks, and this year, I began experimenting with a new sort of launch routine that had pleasant results. This post is an attempt to reflect on why that may have been the case.

First, however, you must indulge me by responding to a prompt in five seconds or less.

reflection theory

NCTM LA Ignite!

I was one of eight educators invited to give an Ignite! talk at the 2022 NCTM Annual Meeting in Los Angeles. I want to thank the program committee (specifically, Aleda Klassen) for the invite, while, at the same time, express just how terrifying the entire experience was–in a good way.

There was no official recording of the event (like previous years), but a fellow Saskatchewan educator, Kirsten Dyck, managed to bootleg us a copy! The videography gives a nice sense of the energy in the room.

The content of the talk expresses the very root of my work in mathematics education–work that I’ve shared freely across digital platforms, and work that I would happily continue with ambitious teachers and districts. Questions, clarifications, and objections can be directed to @NatBanting (on Twitter) or get in contact via the Contact Form on this website.

NatBanting

reflection routine theory

Oops, I forgot: Productive forgetting and convenient remembering

Post author By natbanting
Post date November 2, 2021
3 Comments on Oops, I forgot: Productive forgetting and convenient remembering

**My good friend Joce Dagenais has translated portions of this post into French here.**

In 2018, I made the cross-country trip to attend and present at the OAME Annual conference in Toronto. The session was attended by a particularly boisterous group of math teachers–all of whom I adore. Emerging as the ringleader of this rag-tag group of pedagogical hooligans was Fawn Nguyen, who, in her notorious brilliance, later distilled the ideas into a classroom routine by the name “Oops, I forgot…“–OIF, for short. This post is in response to requests to elaborate a touch on the idea and provide more support for teachers thinking about implementing it in their practice.

reflection theory

Thirteen Days

A huge piece of my identity is invested in being a mathematics teacher.¹ This week I began a new and interesting challenge as a university faculty member preparing pre-service elementary and secondary mathematics teachers. This provides me more time to think deeply and openly about the entirety of the mathematics education enterprise, and put some of those ideas into public circulation through speaking and writing opportunities. I am really looking forward to that.

It also means that I am charged with orchestrating the formative experiences with mathematics teaching for about half of my province’s new teachers. That fact is terrifying. I am given just thirteen days in each course with which to shape the impressions, experiences, and ambitions of the future teachers of my province, city, school division, and (quite possibly) my own children. Thirteen days.

math wars reflection theory

Math Wars North

O Canada!

The debate about best practice in Canadian math education has exploded once again. This time attracting high profile combatants.

This post is not meant to resolve deep-seated values, but rather provide a perspective that gets lost in the partisan arguments. It wouldn’t take a long time to place me in a camp, but that would be assuming that there are two camps that want drastically different things.

classroom structure graphing quadratics theory

On Collective Consciousness and Individual Epiphanies

Post author By natbanting
Post date May 7, 2015
No Comments on On Collective Consciousness and Individual Epiphanies

I would like to begin with a conjecture:

The amount of collective action in a learning system is inversely related to the possible degree of curricular specificity.

The mathematical action of a group of learners centred on a particular task gives rise to a unique way of being with the problem, but also reinvents the problem.

In short, what emerges from collectivity is not tidy.