Changing Your Mindset- To Be More Asian?!

I think a good place to really begin this blog is to grow w/ the baby. Meaning, let’s start with what to do starting your kid’s pre-grade-school years in order to get him/her to be a math genius. =P

Well, from what I see, what you can do, as the parent, while your baby is still a baby, is actually work on changing your own mindset about math learning because whether you mean to or not, what you believe about math education will highly influence and affect your kid’s own math ed. Now what mindset is there to change, you ask? If you grew up going to school in the States, then I’m guessing more than you know.

This book is about a study done cross culturally comparing math education in the U.S., China, and Japan. The reason why they even ran a test w/ countries outside the U.S. is because of a huge realization in the 80′s about how students from the States have been falling drastically behind in math and English compared to other countries. China and Japan’s students, on the other hand, were excelling ahead in the global race, therefore making them the two other countries in this comparative study. Check out the following math achievements of students in the 1st and 5th grade in 1980 and 1987:

Yes, even in first grade there is a difference between kids in the U.S. and kids in Asia, but by the 5th grade, almost every student in the States is falling behind the lowest achieving students in Asia!!

Now I’m sure all of us have our theories as to why this might be. Here are a few I know have run through my mind or that I’ve heard of before.

1. Asians are smarter.
2. Corporal punishment is still legal, for goodness sake! Those kids do what they’re told.
3. They don’t have the huge class sizes and the budget crisis we have here.

Well, in brief, let me tackle these 3 reasons, starting with the last one.

3. Class size and conditions are better there

In actuality, they found that the classrooms in China and Japan were crappier than the ones we have here. Not only that, on average the classes were actually BIGGER than most here in the States! Now that was a shocker to me, for sure. We also spend more money on education than China or Japan.

2. Corporal punishment means better behavior

Yes, I agree, and so does the study, that students are far more disciplined there than they are here. However, this is not due to fact that they’ll get beat if they misbehave. Self-discipline is actually taught by the parents more than the teachers starting at a very young age. While Americans are teaching their preschoolers and kindergartners how to count and the alphabet before they get into kindergarten, Asian parents are teaching their kid how to listen to directions, get along with friends, and how to behave in public. And if you know East Asian culture, it is VERY important that you know how to behave properly in public, not just for yourself, but for the sake of the whole family (go watch Mulan.)

Lastly, but not least-ly, 1. Asians are smarter

Now if this had run through your mind when you tried to think about the reasons on your own, then something in you believes that math intelligence is somehow innate- you’re either born with it or you’re not. This belief is amazingly American and quite detrimental.

To show you an example, picture this. In your math class, after every test throughout the year, the teacher posts your grades up publicly. No, not with coded numbers that only you know, but with your first and last name, what period you’re in, AND how you rank amongst your peers.

How much does this scenario offend you?

Also picture this. You’re back in elementary school and the task is to draw a cube. You draw yours and show the teacher. The teacher takes a look at your picture and then asks the whole class, “Class, does this look like a cube to you?” The class answers in unison, “No.” The teacher then asks you to go up on the board and to practice drawing your cube. You go up there and draw another rendition. The teacher says to try again. You repeat this several times over while the class has moved on to something else until finally, the teacher asks the class if your picture looks like a cube. The class answers, “Yes” and you are able to rejoin the class.

Now if the first scenario didn’t offend you, the second was sure to. I know I was so shocked at how this teacher handled the situation, I almost labeled it as “cruel!”

However, these two scenarios are both very commonplace in Asia because they are actually NOT offensive at all. It is because there is a belief that math ability is not innate but that it comes with EFFORT. The little boy did not cry up on that board nor did any of his classmates make fun of him. He understood that practice is what made perfect, not natural drawing talent and that he simply needed practice.

As for the test scores scenario, publicly posting test scores seems unjust because somewhere we believe that test scores somehow show natural ability, something that cannot be changed. It seems unfair to single a person out for being “stupid” if he/she was simply born “not good at math.” However, in Asia, low test scores are still something to be ashamed of, but the student had full control of the matter. Therefore, it is not so unjust for that to be publicized.

Conclusion

I was born and raised here in the States while my parents were born and raised in Korea. They received all their grade school education from Korea and they definitely brought the effort-mentality into our family. However, I feel like I also saw them assimilate to the American belief of innate ability over the 29 years they’ve been here. It is actually my theory as to why my brother got lower scores in highs school than I did. He’s 6 years younger then me and I actually started to hear them say “maybe he’s just a math person” since he was in late elementary and middle school. Kinda crazy really. I really think it does make a huge difference!

So let’s recap on what you can do while your baby is still babbling. Basically, start seeing and believing that

1. Everyone is born with curiosity to learn
2. No one is born good or bad at math
3. Praise effort, not intelligence

There was actually yet another study on how to praise your child. However, let’s just leave it at that praising your child “You’re so smart” is NOT actually helpful. You should actually praise their efforts, whether it results in success or failure. I highly recommend reading the article if you have time. Oh, and go watch Meet The Robinsons also. =)

Provoking Curiosity

I just read in the New York Times an article about how a baby learns, in general. The following was my favorite part:

In 2007, Laura Schulz and Elizabeth Baraff Bonawitz at M.I.T. demonstrated that when young children play, they are also exploring cause and effect. Preschoolers were introduced to a toy that had two levers and a duck and a puppet that popped up. One group was shown that when you pressed one lever, the duck appeared and when you pressed the other, the puppet popped up. The second group observed that when you pressed both levers at once, both objects popped up, but they never got a chance to see what the levers did separately, which left mysterious the causal relation between the levers and the pop-up objects. Then the experimenter gave the children the toys to play with. The children in the first group played with the toy much less than the children in the second group did. When the children already knew how the toy worked, they were less interested in exploring it. But the children in the second group spontaneously played with the toy, and just by playing around, they figured out how it worked.

One of the major problems in education today, either at home or at school, is that we love to be what teachers call the “sage on the stage” rather than the “guide on the side.” Meaning to say, we love to give out the answers. However, as this one paragraph states, kids learn more when they learn by discovery, not because you tell them. I’m sure we can all remember a time when we discovered something on our own and got praised for it. It is one of the best feelings! Who cares how many other people know it, why it’s useful, we enjoy the moment simply for learning’s sake!

This is what mathematics can and should be all about- the wow factor in discovery/ problem solving. So before I begin blogs about what elements are important, one of the best things you can do for you kid is to be excited with them of the “magic” of discovery. Any kind of discovery, from whats behind the blanket (your face! haha) to what’s behind x in a number puzzle!

If this really interests you, you really should read A Mathematician’s Lament. It’s a super easy read and very enlightening!

A Tribute

I gotta pay tribute to the person who has spurred the idea of starting one of these- Iris Kim! Check out the intensity and focus on this baby!

I absolutely love this picture, not just cuz I love the mother, but because it really does show how babies are born with a learning curiosity. As I look at this picture, I can’t help but to think about the kind of education this kid will be going through, and she’s not even my kid!

Knowing her parents, I know she’ll turn out to be one smart chick, but at the same time, I still want to share all that I have learned about teaching mathematics to make her even smarter!

So here goes this blog, to share some nerdy things bits and pieces at a time.