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I completely agree. I think we start all wrong too, the first memories I have of maths at school was learning how to compute an addition, a subtraction and late
by simias 9y ago
I completely agree. I think we start all wrong too, the first memories I have of maths at school was learning how to compute an addition, a subtraction and later a multiplication and division. Then we had to memorize by heart the multiplication tables.
That can be useful of course (especially back then when we didn't carry computers in our pockets at all times) but I think it sends some pupils on a bad path with regards to mathematics.
Maths shouldn't be mainly about memorizing tables and "dumbly" applying algorithms without understanding what they mean. That's how you end up with kids who can answer "what's 36 divided by 4" but not "you have 36 candies that you want to split equally with 3 other people, how many candies do you end up with?"
And that goes beyond pure maths too. In physics if you pay attention to the relationship between the various units you probably won't have to memorize many equations, it'll just make sense. You'll also be much more likely to spot errors. "Wait, I want to compute a speed and I'm multiplying amperes and moles, does that really make sense?".
- kungito 9y agoA friend's kid did not know how to do subtraction with just numbers but when you said it like he had some currency in a shop then he understood it. That was peculiar although the kid was very young (5-6 I guess) so it's interesting how kids develop ability to do abstract thinking as they age
- steverb 9y agoThat's the way my kids were able to grasp basic math. For fractions we used pizzas. Being able to hang the abstract concept on something that they were used to dealing with made it work for them.