Colten Collings

Not ALL education research is terrible (e.g. a lot of ed psych researchers set up good studies w/ statistical analyses). But a lot of education research is terrible and can often be spotted as such just by exercising critical thinking skills. If the education claim being made is counterintuitive, and supposedly backed by research, that research is likely is bad. I've been reading shoddy education research for absurd claims in math education for ~15 years. Here are a few of the things that are supposedly backed by education "research" that I've looked into and found the research to be terribly flawed or non-existent: ❌standard algorithms are harmful ❌timed tests cause math anxiety ❌taking math makes a teacher worse at teaching math ❌learning math in groups on whiteboards (BTC) improves math learning ❌procedural skill harms understanding ❌inquiry is the best way to teach math The field has a problem. I'm glad reporters are writing about it, but the policymakers (e.g., in schools of education, school districts, government level) need to do something about it because it will keep happening and districts and schools will keep buying products based on fake research claims.

You won't like to hear this, but Saxon was the first math program that helped my struggling math student. It's not flashy, it's not colorful. It is slow, practice-heavy, procedural program. And it works.