Краят на невежеството: Как чрез математиката да разгърнем своя потенциал

by John Mighton, Зорница Бодакова (Translator)

И най-богатите страни не могат да се справят с бедността, защото източникът й си остава невидим дори за просветеното око. В опитите си да я изкореним никога не сме отчитали пагубния ефект на основния постулат в образованието, споделян от всички общества: онзи, според който децата се раждат с такива разлики в умствените си способности, че повечето от тях никога няма да разберат истински математиката и естествознанието.
Аз вярвам, че интелектуалната бедност, която налагаме на мнозинството деца поради непознаване на истинския им потенциал, е най-дълбокият източник на материална бедност, защото прави обществата неспособни да разпределят богатството си справедливо, рационално или устойчиво.
Ако искаме някога да развием пълния потенциал на децата, трябва да разработим образователен модел, базиран на по-дълбоко познание за човешкия мозък.
- Джон Майтън

Genres: Nonfiction, Education, Parenting, Canada, Mathematics

264 pages, Paperback

First published April 20, 2007

About the author

John Mighton, OC is a Canadian author and mathematician. He is the founder of JUMP (Junior Undiscovered Math Prodigies), a charitable organization that works to educate students in mathematics. He is the author of The Myth of Ability (2003) and The End of Ignorance (2007). Mighton is also a playwright, and has been the recipient of two Governor General Awards for his plays which include Possible Worlds, The Little Years, Body & Soul, Scientific Americans, A Short History of Night, and Half Life.

Reviews

[Fannishsunny · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book reads like the author was insulted when other educators weren't wowed by his teaching approach. It would have benefited from a strong editor who would have cut the repetition of the same anecdotes and most likely have cut the length by at least a 1/3rd. Mighton does have good things to say, but his manner of doing so is more annoying than enlightening.

[Trent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the book reads as an infomercial for the JUMP math program. While I like his approach & ideas, can you blame him for promoting it? Some cool ideas for promoting scaffolding in math, & some neat stories on success & challenges.
The last chapter was completely different than the rest as it read like a manifesto for the challenges society faces and took away from the flow of the rest of the book. It was ok.

[Joseph Young · Rating 2 out of 5]

While fairly interesting, this book seems to be an ad for the author's jump system. Some of the examples provided were interesting, if only the author could get off selling himself long enough to say something substantial. Fairly light reading.

[Sasha Gollish]

This book dives more into the reflections of the JUMP (Junior Undiscovered Math Prodigies). It presents more of the early case studies of the program that Mighton developed. It begins to lead into the Brain Science, which his third book, All Things Being Equal, cover in detail.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is basically a defence of the author's JUMP Math program, detailing the reasoning behind various aspects of the program. From what I've read (not just in this book), it seems like a very successful program and I'm all for anything that keeps kids interested in math. There was also a lot that rang very true and accorded well with what I read in "The Knowledge Gap", which is more about literacy and reading. I wound up highlighting many passages in the book.

The chapter towards the end where he complains about math consultants who are against his program was a bit ill-advised, to be honest: it makes the whole book feel like an advertisement. I agree with him that the state of educational research is pretty dour, but it could have been worded better and not just as an attack against people who have rejected his program.

The first part was pretty good, though. Similarly to "The Knowledge Gap", the most inspiring message of the book is that any kid, even those labelled as having learning disabilities, can learn math if it is broken down into small, comprehensible steps.

[Ren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mighton's view on the interdependence of abstract and concrete thought in children and its applications are fascinating.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Mighton is the creator of the JUMP program - a math program we use in our school. I have read other books he has written and am confident that he is on to a good thing. Reading this has made me want to re-dedicate myself to digging deeper into the lessons I teach each day in math.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

One very important look on the current affairs in a GLOBAL Climate. I couldn't agree more on the Solidarity of HUMANITY..

[BW · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a thought-provoking book, primarily about elementary math education. Mighton is the founder of the JUMP math program, which started as a tutoring program but has now been used as the math curriculum in some schools. Mighton elaborates on the philosophy behind JUMP (his starting point is the belief that every child can do math) and its main components. He focuses a great deal on the importance of confidence and attention; children can only math by devoting attention to it, and they will only be willing to devote attention to it if they feel confident that they can succeed. Mighton makes a lot of good arguments, backed up mostly by his personal experience and the experience of other teachers using JUMP. Some of his ideas are probably quite controversial in education circles (for instance, he believes that procedural understanding can lead to conceptual understanding, while recent fashion seems to be to try to get students to use the concepts to come up with their own procedures).

The last few chapters of the book focus more on the issues with current educational research (parts of this felt petty), as well as Mighton's vision of a world in which children are all educated to their full potential (I may be cynical, but this felt like a pipe dream).

Ultimately, I found this book valuable mostly because it offers a different perspective on ways to teach children math. Since it is based mostly on Mighton's personal experiences, I'm not convinced that the ideas in it are necessarily "the best" (nor does he claim that they are), but they definitely made me think.

[Erin Stuhlsatz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this was definitely more of a book than the Myth of Ability, but I'm not sure it benefited from the extra length. I liked that it was much more polished and had some research, but it was still mostly anecdotal. I personally agreed with a lot of his logic, but I can see how it wouldn't be very convincing.



To read:
Understanding and Remembering Number Facts
Mathematics and Nature
Mathematics and Sports
Mathematics and Secret Codes
Mathematics and Art

Applications and Misapplications of Cognitive Psychology to Mathematics Education (John Anderson, Lynn Reder, and Herb Simon)
Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discover, Problem-Based, Experiential and Inquiry-Based Teaching (Paul Kirschner, John Sweller, Richard Clark)
Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment (Paul Black, Dylan Williams)
A Brief History of American K-12 Mathematics Education in the 20th Century

[Quinton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about educational theory, commenting on how we, and kids specifically, can learn almost anything. The book is supposed to be about learning in general, but it goes in detail about the JUMP math program, and as this was writtne by the creator of this program, it is no surprise, but he failed to give many examples of outside uses of his arguments.
Either way, I thought his points were good, and it actually got me excited about teaching math to my kids one day.
His principles are based on not trying to make the material interesting to the kids (who we don't understand, so often fail badly), but making the kids interested in the material through encouragement, and success.
It was a great book, and I would recommend it to any educator.

[Katie Boland · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book explains why he believes his JUMP math program works for kids to learn math. Seems to be a successful model for low income schools with lesser funding and/or higher teacher turnover. Worth looking into in those cases.

[Lindsey Bingley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazingly inspirational!

[Diana Draganova · Rating 3 out of 5]

Заслужава си да се прочете, надявам се скоро да имам възможност и да приложа наученото.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book I have ever read on the topic of modern day education. Highly recommended.