There are many effective teaching pedagogies. One way we have found to produce results is to combine the use of storytelling about baseball in mathematics classes. This paper will illustrate a positive relationship between the three different subjects of baseball, storytelling and mathematics and explain why teachers may want to explore this triple play combination as part of their pedagogy. First, there is more to teaching mathematics than solutions to math problems. Mathematics instruction involves thinking skills such as grouping, ordering, pairing, memory, and number related problems, all cognitive capabilities that create the framework for a student's understanding of math. Mathematics also involves ideas such as rotation, magnitude, curves, space, change, spirals, probabilities, equations, roots and other concepts. Second, many of these same math concepts are also found in the game of baseball which not only lends itself to math problems, but can be developed into stories that become metaphors to assist in the cognitive understanding of mathematical concepts and thinking skills. Finally, a growing body of research also supports the pedagogy of storytelling in a host of settings including the academic environment. Businesses, hospitals, governmental bodies and schools are discovering the power of stories to shape listeners' understanding and awareness. This study examines research on mathematical learning and storytelling and uses the action research of baseball umpiring to illustrate how baseball and storytelling can be used effectively in a math classroom. Both have singular benefits. Combined they have even stronger benefits as assessed by student retention numbers, student evaluation, and student feedback. When baseball stories are used, students' cognitive capabilities for the understanding of mathematics will increase.
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