Math in the 21st Century – Week 2 – Carolina Ruiz

The big takeaway I took from Jean Piaget’s quote is that people should use their brains more to explore as many options that they can. There is not only one right answer to life — we should all be more creative and think of personalized ways to learn different concepts. Of all my the subjects I have taken in school, math has been the most concrete way of learning. Most teachers will teach you every step and once students become more comfortable with the steps, they will provide examples. Though I see no problem with that, some students have different ways of thinking that make math more interesting or easier for them and do not follow the same steps, but end up with the right answer. This is abstract thinking. I personally see math more of a concrete learning experience, but I think teachers should be more open to the idea that there are different steps to get the same solution. I remember that some of my teachers would take points off a test if the student did the problem another way — they wanted students to learn in a concrete (factual/strict) way, but I think students should learn to take math as a form of abstract thinking. I have found that when I find shortcuts to math problems, I enjoy math a little bit more than the day before.