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He makes a really good point about traditional teaching methods. What's the point with the obsession over 'the correct method'? If the answer is correct, and th

He makes a really good point about traditional teaching methods. What's the point with the obsession over 'the correct method'? If the answer is correct, and the method in question can reliably reach the correct answer, in my opinion, the correct method is that one, and it differs from person to person.

adrianN 11y ago
The correct method might be the method that scales better. Counting on your fingers for example is a pretty decent method to add until you reach bigger numbers. If you don't use the more complicated methods, you'll never improved past some point.
- pas 11y ago
  Then ask harder questions that show the value of the harder (more complicated, less intuitive) methods. But at the same time, show the value of those answers, because on the face of it, knowing how much is 342x520+92 is not really valuable. Even knowing how much is any number plus any number is not that interesting for basically 90% of the population.
  - deleted 11y ago
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  - JadeNB 11y ago
    > Then ask harder questions that show the value of the harder (more complicated, less intuitive) methods. It's not clear to me that there's an obvious right answer here, but I do believe that most obvious answers are, to some degree, wrong. Namely, saying "just ask harder questions" doesn't take into account that then the student is trying to solve hard questions and learn a new method at the same time. Teaching a more general method on easy problems gives time to become acclimatised to the method, while also offering sanity checks (by easier, faster, and / or approximate methods) to make sure that it's not going wrong. On the other hand, as you say, this approach seems unmotivated, and bores or frustrates students—there's no obvious right answer! I think that all that can be said is that one must find the appropriate balance for each individual student, or class.
Jemmeh 11y ago
It's not about solving that particular problem. They are teaching a method of problem solving. You're teaching a person to have different tools to solve problems instead of just relying on the methods they already know. In an ideal world maybe the teacher could tweak the problem each time they see a person using a different method, to make the problem one that forces a person to use the method they are trying to teach. In the real world you usually can't give each student that kind of attention. You just have to say, "Look, I know you could solve it that way, but I need you to try to solve it this way so we can learn this method."

adrianN 11y ago

The correct method might be the method that scales better. Counting on your fingers for example is a pretty decent method to add until you reach bigger numbers. If you don't use the more complicated methods, you'll never improved past some point.

pas 11y ago
Then ask harder questions that show the value of the harder (more complicated, less intuitive) methods. But at the same time, show the value of those answers, because on the face of it, knowing how much is 342x520+92 is not really valuable. Even knowing how much is any number plus any number is not that interesting for basically 90% of the population.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- JadeNB 11y ago
  > Then ask harder questions that show the value of the harder (more complicated, less intuitive) methods. It's not clear to me that there's an obvious right answer here, but I do believe that most obvious answers are, to some degree, wrong. Namely, saying "just ask harder questions" doesn't take into account that then the student is trying to solve hard questions and learn a new method at the same time. Teaching a more general method on easy problems gives time to become acclimatised to the method, while also offering sanity checks (by easier, faster, and / or approximate methods) to make sure that it's not going wrong. On the other hand, as you say, this approach seems unmotivated, and bores or frustrates students—there's no obvious right answer! I think that all that can be said is that one must find the appropriate balance for each individual student, or class.

Jemmeh 11y ago

It's not about solving that particular problem. They are teaching a method of problem solving. You're teaching a person to have different tools to solve problems instead of just relying on the methods they already know. In an ideal world maybe the teacher could tweak the problem each time they see a person using a different method, to make the problem one that forces a person to use the method they are trying to teach. In the real world you usually can't give each student that kind of attention. You just have to say, "Look, I know you could solve it that way, but I need you to try to solve it this way so we can learn this method."