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Running Head: LITERATURE REVIEW 1

Literature Review

Lauren Gilster

12 May 2018

Dr. Pengilly

In partial fulfillment of TED 690


LITERATURE REVIEW 2

Abstract

This paper reviews the book What’s math got to do with it?: How teachers and parents can

transform mathematics learning and inspire success, by Jo Boaler. This book supports Domain

A of the California Teaching Performance Expectations. Domain A requires teachers to make

the subject matter comprehensible to students.


LITERATURE REVIEW 3

Literature Review

In today’s classroom culture, many students have such a negative view of mathematics.

Many students cannot see how they will ever use mathematics in their lives. In the book, What’s

math got to do with it?, written by Jo Boaler, this phenomenon is discussed in detail. The book

begins with the chapter “What is Math?” Boaler (2015) explains that when students are asked

about what math is, they give a simple answer like “‘numbers’ or ‘lots of rules’” (p. 15), when in

reality math is the study of patterns and connected ideas. There is this distorted view of

mathematics that makes it so the material is not relatable. Domain A from the TPE’s explains

that teachers need to be able to make the subject matter comprehensible to students. In this

book, Boaler (2015) explains what math is and how both teachers and parents can change the

attitudes of students towards mathematics in the classroom.

This book expands on the fact that students need to have an understanding of what math

is and how to think about math. In the second chapter of the book, Boaler (2015) talks about

why there is a problem in the classroom when it comes to the understanding of mathematical

concepts and their application. “Whenever students offer a solution to a math problem, they

should know why the solution is appropriate, and they should draw from mathematical rules and

principles when they justify the solution rather than just saying that a textbook or a teacher told

them it was right” (p. 49). Thus, in order to begin making the subject matter comprehensible for

the students, they need to understand the reason behind the concepts. The students need to

understand that math is discoverable, rather than just facts and rules that they are required to

follow. “Reasoning and justifying are both critical acts, and it is very difficult to engage in them

without talking” (Boaler, 2015, p. 49).


LITERATURE REVIEW 4

Another way to make the subject matter comprehensible for all students is to make sure

that students are able to use a wide variety of tools in order to demonstrate their understanding.

Boaler (2015) states this best through her statement:

being good at mathematics involved many different ways of working, as mathematicians’

accounts tell us. It involves asking questions, drawing pictures and graphs, re-phrasing

problems, justifying methods, and representing ideas, in addition to calculating with

procedures. Instead of just rewarding the correct use of procedures, the teachers

encouraged and rewarded all of these different ways of being mathematical. (p. 83)

There are so many different ways that students can prove their comprehension. It is the

responsibility of the teacher to make sure that the students are able to show this through their

work. They should have the opportunity to show what they know through their preferred

method.
LITERATURE REVIEW 5

References

Boaler, J. (2015). What’s math got to do with it?: How teachers and parents can transform

mathematics learning and inspire success. NY, NY: Penguin Books

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