Citizenship Reflection

Citizenship Education in Mathematics: Reflection

I found Simmt’s article quite interesting, and I felt that it correlated quite well with the previous readings on problem posing. I also appreciated the list of goals for math education, as it highlights the importance of mathematics as a part of cultural heritage and a way to self-empower. I also found the description of mathematical modeling to be quite interesting. The way Simmt describes the ‘formatting power’ of mathematics, made it seem as though the relationship between math and societal phenomena is more intertwined than one might think. The image which came to my mind was of a feedback loop driven by information, where output of a model is utilized and reconfigured into new input. Although teaching to promote responsible citizenship has not been central to my thinking as a mathematics instructor, I do feel that attempting to mold young people into positive members of society is a sacred and important duty. Additionally, I like the idea of creating a classroom environment where students have the opportunity to collaborate and pose their own problems. In this way, students can feel like they are more involved in their personal learning processes. Moreover, by emphasizing the importance of multiple solution methods, students will be forced to reexamine their hypotheses and look at problems from different points of view. In general, I feel like education for citizenship in a math class would not be accomplished in an obvious way. Rather, it would be accomplished by stealth, and by properly manipulating the learning environment.