Interesting Talk

Oooo... there's a potentially interesting talk today:

The Math Plague: Learning Strategies for Under-Achievers in Mathematics

Sherry Mantyka
Director, Mathematics Learning Centre
Memorial University

This presentation is anecdotal but the knowledge on which it is based is not. As a researcher at Memorial University, Dr. Mantyka has had the opportunity to study the learning problems of under-achievers in mathematics collaboratively with psychologists, teachers, and students, to do statistical analysis on large data sets, and to conduct controlled experiments. However, under-achievers have no interest in sophisticated research; they simply want to be able to successfully complete their required courses in mathematics. This has led us to also develop bridging strategies as motivation to introduce these new learning strategies to students.

The presentation will contain a sample of some common learning problems which have been identified, learning strategies to remedy these problems, and bridging strategies to motivate the student to use these new techniques.

Many of the learning principles discussed in The Math Plague are applicable to any discipline and to any endeavor. Examples of this and justification for this statement will be provided.

Talks like this can either be really good, or really bad. I'm hoping for the former.

While I'm rambling about research anyway, I'll give you a brief (cryptic?) dissertation update: I actually made some nice progress last week, and had a good (online) meeting with my advisor yesterday. Yay!