12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The right direction, Nov 10 2009
By Eugene Spanier "butthebreathofafirefly" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The End of Ignorance: Multiplying Our Human Potential (Hardcover)
As a teacher of language I found this book by a math PhD to be enlightening and inspiring. Mighton (who has also published two plays), approaches teaching from a connections perspective i.e. how can we effectively engage students and draw their attention to concepts and exercises that they will eventually find fascinating. As a teacher, Mighton shares his challenges, failures and successes in a frank and reflective style. Easily on par with and perhaps better -considering his insights with respect to recent research- than any book I encountered in professional teaching certification and qualification programs.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
extremely helpful. this book really changed my ideas on how to teach math., July 5 2011
By C. Ternoey "ct" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The End of Ignorance: Multiplying Our Human Potential (Paperback)
i just recommended this book to my sister via email.
here is the text of my email to her about this book...
...
i just want to recommend john mighton to you as an author.
i recently read "the end of ignorance" and this book has really changed my view of how (and also why) to teach math.
for example,... i was recently having a walk with [my daughter] and said...
"do you know how to add 30 plus 40? its not that hard. you just take those zeros off and throw them away.
then your left with 3+4, which is easy? yes, 7, thats right. well,.... now put a zero back and its 70, right?
so then 30 + 40 must be 70"
the book does not directly recommend such a way of teaching addition.
but i feel this was in the spirit of the philosophy that the book presents.
the general idea is that it is good to teach simple tricks for helping children get to the answers of math problems.
they will become proud that they know how to do something "hard".
then they will eventually ponder these rules and come to understand why they work in a later stage.
and teachers should encourage them to do that pondering at some time but not urgently.
(for a more radical example,... consider that he [sometimes] teaches children how to add fractions
without knowing what they mean except that they are two numbers with a line in between)
anyway,.... i felt i already had a natural intuition for how to teach mathematics.
however,... my views have changed a lot since reading that book.
give it a try if you can.
-c