Math teacher was trained on equity, culture, but not how to teach math

Part of a Mayan almanac Credit: Dresden Codex

Teacher training at a well-respected university focused on social justice, cultural relevance, students' psychology -- but not how to teach math, an engineer turned math teacher tells Holly Korbey in an interview. "Yellow Heights," as he calls himself, is the author of Unbalanced: Memoir of an Immigrant Math Teacher.

Yellow Heights was a top math student in China, he tells Korbey. In the U.S., he enjoying working with students in his son's school math club. After working for Microsoft and then in finance, his startup failed. He enrolled in a one-year master's in teaching program to prepare for a new career.

Classes focused on justice and equity, supporting adolescent students in their identities, "culturally sustaining pedagogy" and building healthy relationships with students, he tells Korbey. There were classes on the practical part of teaching, but they also focused on culture.

“Teaching for Learning” was "pretty ideological. It’s about cultural background, adolescent development, a little focus on students with disability and how to deal with that," says Yellow Heights.

“Content Area Methods” wasn't about math content. "It’s basically about respecting different identities, working in different school environments — very culturally focused."

The adolescent development course had one chapter on psychology, he says. There was little discussion. The class went on "six chapters dedicated to social issues."

He estimates that 10 percent to 15 percent of coursework was about math or teaching. It was "a total waste of money, a waste of time."

Many of his classmates -- especially the recent college graduates -- didn't know much math, Yellow Heights adds. Some said they were "scared of math."

As a student teacher, he had a great mentor. "But every class was about how to infuse equity in everything you do." Nothing was based on evidence about what works.

In every class, you must include elements to show that math is multicultural. . . . some math came from Mexican heritage, some from the Middle East. And I did dig into Chinese math heritage. You must . . . show that math was invented by cultures other than Europe.

When he started teaching, he was surprised to hear colleagues say they raised the grades of students from "challenged families." Students had lost ground in remote classes. Standards were lowered, so most could get A's.

"Isn’t the equitable thing to do to teach students how to do math?," asks Korbey.

It's not what he was taught in graduate school, says Yellow Heights.

In China and other Asian systems, "math is like gymnastics of your mind, and for that you need muscle practice," he says. "But if you want to use it creatively, with too much practice you can also lose a sense of wonder and lose a sense of discovery." So he tries to combine practice and discovery. Of course, he adds, "if a student learns math to that degree, they can use it anywhere. Just having your brain without any muscle, your thinking is going to be empty."

Future elementary teachers need high-quality, evidence-based training in teaching math to young children, write Gena Nelson and Cece Zhou of Deans for Impact. "Just as the science of reading has sparked system-wide shifts in how literacy is taught, the science of how early math must be taught deserves the same attention and action."

Most teacher-preparation programs devote little time to key math concepts, reports the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) report.