As
a Teaching of Mathematics major (Secondary Education), I have constantly come
across the phrase, “Think like a Mathematician.” Up until this point in my academic career, I
never thought much into this being said or what it really meant. I guess you
could say I was not thinking metacognitively when hearing this, but I just took
it in surface level. I am sure that when I am saying this; that other
disciplines have heard this same phrase, but referring to their exact
discipline whether it is science, history, etc. When hearing this phrase, what
do you think? Do you think it has a deeper meaning?
After reading the readings from
this past week, I have come to the conclusion that this phrase means so much
more. It actually shows pre-service teachers and in-service teachers that our
future students do not know how to read through different disciplinary lenses
and that teachers need to remind them that when they are in different classes
that they need to think, read, and write for that discipline. If teachers need
to remind them that they need to do this, then it is apparent that there is a
lack in mentoring and showing students how to be literate across the
disciplines.
Buehl discusses that students
come to classes with different identities whether they are part of our nature,
related to positions we have attained, personal traits, and ones we share with
others through associations. These identities then influence our personal
profiles as readers (Buehl, 2011). These
identities can either empower or undermine academic performance. Learning in a
discipline requires people to enact different identities (Moje, 2011). For
example, I have always heard peers in my classes say that they were not good at
math because they liked another subject better. These things are either reinforced
by themselves or by others and what they say about them. These students will
then be coming into our classrooms with preconceived notions that they may or
may not read, write, or think well in particular subjects. This is where I believe
the phrase, “Think like a ___insert discipline here_______,” comes into play
because we need to remind our students that they need to think, read, and write
differently depending on the course.
As pre-service teachers or
in-service teachers, it is crucial for us to help our students to develop as
readers, thinkers, and writers across all the disciplines in the upper level
classrooms which can be done by using many strategies and practices (I was
surprised that majority of the teachers were not in favor of them based on the
article by Moje). As teachers, we have developed ways of thinking pertaining to
our particular disciplines, and it has now become natural to us. As Buehl said,
“Thinking this way as a reader comes naturally to me now. I just do it” (Buehl,
2011). No matter the discipline, we read for comprehension and understanding. Students
are asked and expected to be many different kinds of readers and writers as
they move on to high school. We have to examine and challenge what it means to
learn in different disciplines or subject areas (Moje, 2008). We want and
expect students to comprehend texts dealing with complex concepts by applying
skills that have been rarely taught. Moje discusses that literacy practice is
an integral part of subject-area learning rather than a set of strategies
engaging with texts (Moje, 2008).
Teachers consider themselves only
responsible for teaching the subject, but they also need to teach the reading
skills along with it. All subjects must challenge students to read and
understand complex texts. We need to apprentice readers, thinkers, and writers
in disciplinary literacy. One way we can do this is by modeling. We can give
access to how we think in order to build their models of thinking in relation
to this discipline. In my future math classroom, I would like to implement this
to help my students understand certain algorithms, equations, word problems,
etc. Teachers modeling their thinking was one of the ways I believe I became
very good at solving equations, word problems, and just math in general. Once I
saw how an expert was thinking about that concept, I began modeling my thinking
after that example. To see how a teacher deconstructs the problems, sentences
in the textbook, and definitions, it is correctly modeling reading through a
mathematics lenses. This can and should be done across all subjects. We also
have to support practice as well by scaffolding which is providing temporary
supports for instructional purposes that guide students in their thinking
(Buehl, 2011). An essential component of scaffolding is fostering classroom
student collaborations. Students will not use what was taught unless it is
practiced. They need to remember to use these practices and modeling whenever
doing work with that specific discipline. Then the student needs to read and
learn independently by applying processes of comprehension. If teachers model and scaffold correctly and if students practice and read/learn independently, they
will also understand the concepts more in depth. Once a student understands the concept
fully, they can then make connections across the entire discipline. Connections
can be made across many different subjects. In particular, math concepts build
off of one another and it is hard to understand them if you do not make
connections. In order for students to make these connections, they need to think,
read, and write like a Mathematician.
