Blog Post #5

Youcubed - Stanford University - Visual Math Image

       This week's online learning module included a focus on using visual images.  In this post I will discuss the benefits of using visual images when teaching or learning mathematics.  In particular, I will discuss the importance of using visual images and their significance for differentiating instruction.

       It is important for both teaching practice and student learning that differentiated instruction be undertaken in the classroom.  Incorporating the use of visual images can help achieve this latter end in various ways for mathematics.  Perhaps the most obvious way visual images help students learn a variety of mathematical concepts is that they offer an alternative representation of a math problem or question.  In most cases, mathematical problems are posed to students using numbers.  Numbers have an abstract quality that can be alienating for some students.  For instance, sometimes students have trouble understanding the value that numbers represent or have difficulty connecting numbers to their 'real world' applications.  Using visual images to represent math problems or their subsequent solutions offers students a means to understanding mathematics that is simultaneously less abstract than numbers and often a closer reflection of the 'real world' around us.  Furthermore, visual images are naturally a tremendous benefit for visual learners.  Providing a means for visual learners preferred method of acquiring knowledge creates a bridge to understanding that is not always available in the traditional format of teaching mathematics.

       While visual images are beneficial to student learning they should also be incorporated into teaching assessment.  Differentiated instruction usually focuses on how to offer a variety of learning opportunities for students.  But it is sometimes overlooked in terms of its applications for assessment.  Allowing students to use visual images in mathematics to demonstrate their solutions to problems should be adopted as a valid form of submitting work for assessment.  What is important is that students are able to demonstrate their understanding of a subject, as oppose to demanding students demonstrate their understanding in only one particular chosen format.  That is, good pedagogy strives for student comprehension in all of its potential forms.  Bad pedagogy demands that students limit their potential for understanding by narrowing their opportunities for learning and stifling their potential for creativity.  Since the use of visual images in mathematics diversifies student learning and assessment potential it should be incorporated as valid mathematical format and tool for twenty-first century teaching.