Reflection on “Teaching the Marked Case”

Dave Hewitt introduced a rather unusual method for teaching math. He used pattern recognizing to present a material from a really simple basic to a more complex idea. Also, the idea of a variable ‘x’ was brought up unconsciously. I found it interesting that, even without an explanation of what a variable is, the students could grasp the idea on their own. Also, the lecture style was really interactive. It is hard to not pay attention to the teacher in the class.

I like how he let the students “self-check” their own answers. It boosts the students’ confidence and thus more likely to be interested in math and be more engaged with math problems. In addition, the students were given the chances of being rather creative in making up different ideas on how to “arrive” at the same value. However, I found this lecture style too slow paced. Some students may be bored during the lecture.

To conclude, I think this lecture style may work, but not in all kinds of topics. For each different topic, we need to think about which teaching style would fit in with that particular lecture, as no lecture style fits all the needs in the topic.