Robinson Article Response

Robinson Article: Reflection/Response

I quite enjoyed this article because it gave some rough guidelines describing ways to go from an adequate math instructor, to an instructor who inspires. Robinson’s initial approach to teaching is reminiscent of just about every high school math teacher I’ve known. They are burdened by content – laden curricula, and they feel forced to teach in a very instrumental, skill based manner. Unfortunately, this leads to a situation where students are virtually unable to think critically, and they have great difficulty adapting their learning to unusual problems. This is precisely what Robinson experienced in her class. Initially, I was skeptical about the effectiveness of incorporating the types of activities suggested by Robinson. The only experience I have with group work in a math class is using integer tiles to solve worksheets in Math 8. I found this to be a colossal bore, as I was fluent in integer operations and I saw no need to ‘waste my precious time’ with these ridiculous blocks. However, after reading Robinson’s description of how she set up her function jigsaw groups, I found my attitude toward the idea of collaborative activities to be somewhat improved. I think I would be somewhat nervous about implementing such a strategy myself, until I had a firmer grasp of how to achieve all the PLOs for a given course; however, I would be interested to try it after becoming more acclimatized to my role as a teacher.