Teaching Math With Examples

by Michael Pershan

Rammed full of practical ideas – all of which are beautifully articulated and backed by research – this is a truly wonderful book.
-Craig Barton , Author of How I Wish I'd Taught Maths

I can’t recommend highly enough this very do-able and high-leverage approach to any math teacher or curriculum developer who wants to level up their task design, or just try out something new.
-Kate Nowak , Former high school math teacher and currently Vice President of Product Strategy for Illustrative Mathematics

Genres: Education, Teaching, Mathematics, Nonfiction

126 pages, Paperback

Published January 27, 2021

Reviews

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best math ed book I've read in a while! This book was filled with discussions about practices I've already adopted in my classroom -- and the research to support or discourage them -- and also many new ideas and techniques I'm excited to try. Chapters 5 and 8 were particularly excellent. I really think every high school math educator would benefit from reading this!

[Bowman Dickson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing! Both challenging and affirming, deeply philosophical but wholly practical at the same time. Bravo

[Kerim Ramadan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick summary of using examples in class to teach. Even though this is a short book all of the key points could have been summed up in an article and not cost £12.

The ideas themselves are good, nothing particularly ground breaking if you are up to date with current thinking in maths education (in the uk at least). Useful for maths teachers as a tool to reflect on how they do things, although many may say they apply these principles I would suggest that most would do so very superficially and would miss the key features of the good practice described here.

In summary a clear and purposeful description of how examples can be used. I was expecting more discussion on which examples to choose (a topic I don’t see much literature on at the moment) but that could be because I didn’t read the blurb carefully enough.

[Tony Germany · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been teaching maths at secondary school in the UK for 7 years and the feeling I have after reading this book is that of excitement. Not since Craig Barton’s how I wish I’d taught maths have I felt this way, while Craig’s book covers such a broad spectrum of teaching pedagogy, this focuses specifically on how Michael has used worked examples in his classroom. I feel that most of my lessons may see some future benefit from many aspects of this book. He has weaved a collection of pedagogical research into a little book of golden nuggets applicable to any classroom. My bow has another string.

[Eliza · Rating 5 out of 5]

What it’s about: When and how to use examples to teach maths.
My favourite part: The further reading section, because the author just seems really excited to be writing about the people who influenced him and their work, which is nice.
My favourite quote: ‘Congratulations! You just invented “fading out an example”’ (p. 69).

This is the kind of stuff I wanted to learn at uni.
It also casually mentions a lot of ideas from cognitive load theory (“John Sweller’s research is all over this book” - further reading section), but puts it into a more specific context for maths instruction.

[Michael Webster · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, short read. Provides snippets of research entwined with practical guidance and tips on how to teach better using worked examples.

I use worked examples to teach many parts of the curriculum, however there are some excellent nuggets in there with regards to getting the absolute most of every example. Not necessarily ground breaking but a worthwhile read if you are looking to get the most out of your teaching.

[Pat Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every education book should be like this, short, to the point, honest about its viewpoint, full of practical advice with a firm theoretical backing. I got a bunch of tweeks to my use of examples from this lovely little book.

[junela melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

the writing is super clear and digestible. the most important takeaway for me is how studying worked examples isn't necessarily "giving up", as they can be good learning materials, as long as active thinking is happening.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very practical strategies he has tested in his own classroom for years. Shared research to back up the why too!