The (New) Way to Learn Math – Part 1: A Little History

This is the first in a series of posts about teaching math.

There was a time (not very long ago) when we taught math procedurally:

1. We taught students a procedure for solving a certain type of problem (for example, subtraction with regrouping).

2. We had students practice the procedure over and over again until they were very good at using the procedure to solve that type of problem.

3.  We emphasized speed.

4.  The student scored well on a test of that procedure.

5.  We considered ourselves done.

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There turned out to be some problems with that teaching:

1.  Students had trouble knowing what procedure to use if we didn’t tell them because procedures were taught in the context of a certain type of problem.

2.  When students forgot the procedure, they couldn’t recreate it from their math knowledge.

3.  We often saw answers to problems that just didn’t make sense.

4.  Students didn’t see any room for creativity in math.

5.  Students were bored and turned away from math.

6.  Timed tests in particular created math anxiety in some students.

Image courtesy of Pixabay

So, thanks in part to the new Common Core, we have a new focus in math:

1.  We are asking students to really look at the numbers in a problem to try to make sense of them.

2.  We are asking students to be creative in solving problems and to share their solutions with others.

3.  We are exposing students to numerous strategies for solving problems to deepen their thinking and make it clear that there are multiple ways of looking at problems and solving them.

4.  We want students to see that math doesn’t have to be boring.

We teach differently:

1.  We talk about math myths and debunk them.  

2.  We do regular math talks with the class in which students are asked to solve a problem mentally, explain how they solved it and consider multiple other ways of solving it.

3.  We practice estimating.  This is one way for students to see whether or not an answer makes sense.

4.  We play games that strengthen mathematical thinking.

5.  We focus on the ways we use math every day.  We want students to see the connection between math and their world.

Image courtesy of Pixabay

We want student to know that math can be creative, interesting, useful and fun!