MAED 314A Interview Reflection

When I was in high school, I hardly work with other students during math classes. We just sat and listened to the teachers talk. There was no class involvement. Thus, it was interesting to see that both students we interviewed support the idea of incorporating TPS (Think-Pair-Share) techniques in their math classes. I always thought that TPS only works with classes like literature where ideas are diverse. Apparently, the students do prefer to have discussion on anything they learn, whether literature or math. TPS techniques let the students engage in active thinking environment which can help the students in understanding the materials. These techniques are also beneficial even in math classes as our interviewed students suggested. Thus, TPS is a technique I would definitely try to incorporate in my future math classes.

During the group presentation on Friday, I noticed how every group asked approximately the same questions. Thus, these questions had similar answers:

“A good teacher is one who has sense of humor and good organization.”
“As a teacher, you need to be well-prepared and need to have good classroom management.”
“Stay positive.”
“Don’t be monotone!”
“Relate math to real life to get the students interested in math.”

The answers are so stereotypically ideal. There wasn’t much “news” or “ideas” regards to teaching. In my entire education courses, I have been told several times of the same idea: the teachers need to be organized, prepared, thoughtful, caring, devoting, motivating and many more...

One thing I liked during the group presentation is the example of collecting homework based on the results of quizzes. I like this idea because even if a student failed a quiz, by proving that they did or at least tried the homework, it demonstrates that this student is indeed trying to understand math, whether relationally or instrumentally. As compared to the students who did not pass the quiz and did not do the homework, this one student should at least be applauded of his or her efforts in math.