I used to be a professor. I did find I got more engagement from students when course material is grounded in reality, but not the same way a lot of posters are suggesting.
Using math to solve real world problems is all well and good, but it has the same problem as teaching math in the abstract. The theorems and techniques are all handed down from on high, like some divine miracle given to humanity by the gods of logic and reason.
This works fine for the tippy top of the class who just take the material and run with it (I was once one such), but it loses everyone else. People need context. I tried to, as much as time permitted, give the historical context for the math I was teaching. To show that mere men developed it, that they were trying to solve a specific problem, that they built everything up on what came before.
I got great results. I wish I had more time to do it, but, well, when the department standardized end of course test requires that they be able to do n kinds of derivative rules and solve m kinds of integral, I only had so much time to talk about how Isaac Newton invented the cat flap.
Using math to solve real world problems is all well and good, but it has the same problem as teaching math in the abstract. The theorems and techniques are all handed down from on high, like some divine miracle given to humanity by the gods of logic and reason.
This works fine for the tippy top of the class who just take the material and run with it (I was once one such), but it loses everyone else. People need context. I tried to, as much as time permitted, give the historical context for the math I was teaching. To show that mere men developed it, that they were trying to solve a specific problem, that they built everything up on what came before.
I got great results. I wish I had more time to do it, but, well, when the department standardized end of course test requires that they be able to do n kinds of derivative rules and solve m kinds of integral, I only had so much time to talk about how Isaac Newton invented the cat flap.