Opinion Piece on Math Instruction

Mathematics Education: Being Outwitted by Stupidity is a thoughtful discussion of current strategies and practices used for teaching mathematics. In an opinion piece the author, Barry Garelick, examines possible causes for the disappointing performance of children in the United States to achieve proficiency in this critical skill. Garelick draws attention to the trend for schools to adopt instructional practices emphasizing a discovery or inquiry based approach to teaching mathematics while discarding past practices that relied on the explicit instruction of mathematics skills. He explains that this is not the first time the field of education has experienced a comparable clash of approaches. Garelick compares what is happening in the field mathematics to a similar rejection of explicit instruction for a discovery approach that occurred in the field of reading instruction, with similar and equally disappointing results.

The author suggests that the significant jump in the numbers of students labeled Learning Disabled can in some significant part be attributed to this adoption of teaching methods for bringing about a failure of our schools to teach the essential skills of reading and math. Unfortunately, there is insufficient research available to confirm the author’s conclusions, but the article is well written and the conclusions are intriguing. It is clear that rigorous research needs to be conducted to address the issues discussed in this piece.