Math is truth

I woke up this morning to this view...

I am in Vietnam right now visiting family, but it has also been a perfect opportunity for me to inquire about math education here. I’ve been curious because I have always seen a disconnect between the students from Southeast Asia who have a very strong understanding of mathematics come from what appears to be a very traditional, direct-instruction approach to teaching.

I had a chance to visit a high school, talk to the administration, teachers, and students to find out more.

At first glance, the approach is indeed very traditional. There are 45 students per class, sitting in rows of desks, taking notes from the teacher who stands at a chalk board at the front. Students are asked to show their understanding by coming to the front and explaining how they worked through a problem.

However, when I talked to the students and teachers, I noticed a few key differences from what I have seen in North America:

1. Conceptual understanding is valued and emphasized. As students were working on questions individually, I heard a teacher say to the class “stop when you understand the concept – don’t do questions that you already understand.” Rather than focus on task completion, students are encouraged to examine what makes each question different than the previous and to explain their thinking to the class.

2. Professional development is integrated into everyday life of a teacher. A part of a teachers schedule is to sit in and observe colleagues while they teach. This can appear and feel like a constant evaluation, but when I spoke to teachers, it was just a normal part of their learning. Feedback from these observations is formative and constructive. What I liked the most was that it created a sense of openness that welcomed people in to observe the class.

3. Mathematics is seen as truth. This was an eye-opening conversation that I had with a group of teachers of all subjects. They all agreed that math is the most important subject – and there was no mention of it being because it was practical. Math is seen as truth – aligned with fields like philosophy and religion. There is no attempt to contrive applications of mathematics when its beauty and power is in noticing and discovering how the universe works. The Pythagorean Theorem and Trigonometric ratios don’t exist just so that we can figure out how tall a building is, they exist as universal truths that can never be disproved. This perspective of mathematics reminded me of the following ted talk that I just love: Math is forever.

Many students and adults I talk to in Canada believe that mathematics is a man-made mechanism; that math would not exist without humans. The formulas, notation, and systems we put in place are indeed man-made, but they are all just ways for us to notice the universe around us. The concept of a circle would exist whether we noticed it or not, and the relationship between the circle's diameter and circumference would be a constant, irrational number regardless if we had ever given it the name and symbol π.

I am not suggesting that math is not practical; some of the worlds most important developments were possible because of applied mathematics. However, I am wondering if we are doing our students a disservice if we send a message that math was invented by humans for only practical purposes; as a way to calculate tips for a bill, or to calculate the interest on a mortgage. Perhaps we can get more kids passionate about math if we help them see how powerful it really is.