Response: Article by Heather J. Robinson

'Using Research to Analyze, Inform, and Assess changes in Instruction'
by Heather J. Robinson

This article struck me particularly because I see myself, primarily, as a 'lecture-based' teacher. Perhaps this spawns from having a lecture-style teacher for my grade 12 year. But, having the right coping and learning skills, I thrived regardless and in fact was probably aided by the large quantity of information and demonstration. The participation factor wasn't necessary for me to succeed, where as it may be for many others. So, I'm looking to try and be more effective than that at reaching all my students.

I am curious as to why the issue of high failure rates doesn't seem to have been addressed by the school. Did they not know this was happening? Also, what school has 20 math teachers?!? Even for 2,500 students. My high school had 3,000 students and had a french teacher teaching math along with a small handful of math teachers. And there was no 'Advanced Placement Statistics' or 'Money Management' courses... there was just 'Math'! Is it possible that this school and its teachers were simply teaching material that was too advanced for the students? Or were there some real challenges in engaging the students, without sacrificing the essential time spent on theory and lecture.

It even seemed that there might be a fundamental challenge in learning instrumental techniques (as in the case of the Quizzes). There is clearly a piece of the puzzle missing if the students can't even solve a simplification problem instrumentally.

In my future classroom, I plan on supplying more practice, more assessment and more clarity of information, to best avoid some of these learning crises.