Interview Reflection

From our interviews with the teachers and students, we got a good sense of what to be aware of and how to better ourselves in becoming effective instructors. Though some of the ideas from the teachers and students are different there are a few things that stand out. Firstly was the provincial and its seemingly “narrowing way of teaching”. Both teachers agreed on this and though both wanted to expand the students’ understanding of mathematics, the provincials restricted them into just teaching rules and equations. One of the teachers even just referred this method of teaching as “training” the students into passing tests and exams. This evidence of training even shows up with the students’ answer on how important they think high school math is later on in life. They were trained to thinking that it’ll be very useful and even if it is in certain areas, they couldn’t really explain why or where it would be important.

Another difference that stood out was the analytical versus computational component of mathematics. The students all agreed that they rather just learn the equations and they don’t need to know the concept whereas the teachers were fully for analysis and expanding those equations. It seems like the students have been so immersed in the computational part that they don’t see the other alternatives and are seemingly dismissive of the idea of analytical math. So we thought that’s something that we as teacher candidates are probably going to struggle with, trying to broaden the students’ minds even though they might just want the equations.

The most significant thing that we found through these interviews is the similarity in both the teachers’ and the students’ response on how to engage students. They all agreed that to be able to engage the students, teachers must be energetic and be relational with the students. The students must be able to be comfortable with the teacher and like the teacher in order for “something to stick” with the students. At the same time the teacher must show that they are enthusiastic with the subject in order for the students to feed off that excitement and be attentive to the teacher. This above all else is what engages the students. From our interviews with the students, they remember more of the teachers rather than most creative lesson they’ve been taught. They learn better from the teacher’s attitude towards the subject rather than “gimmicks” to making learning math fun. That’s why one of the teachers always tried to eliminate the idea of math being tough and always stayed positive.