Three long busy days after a busy week have left me in the mood for a rant.
As a part of my Masters degree, I am taking a course in mathematics instruction methods (to make up a deficiency). I just read the first chapter today, and already I'm seeing constructivism show up in the readings (and it's not the first time it's showed up in readings for educational classes).
<rant>What is it with math teachers and constructivism? In every way constructivism (which is just relativistic humanism applied to psychology) contradicts the foundational principles on which mathematics is based! Using constructivism in math is what yielded so much of the poor quality mathematics reforms of the 1990s, such as "Let students figure it out on their own" (even though they lack the background knowledge and desire to do so) and "There are no wrong answers" (which last time I checked, wasn't true, either). No wonder we are so far behind in mathematics education when we're too busy adhering to a philosophy that is so contrary to reality!</rant>
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