2 ms·

Sure but do we want kids to just learn what's the correct sum or do we want them to learn the process to arrived at the correct sum? From my school years as a k

by piva00 2y ago

Sure but do we want kids to just learn what's the correct sum or do we want them to learn the process to arrived at the correct sum? From my school years as a kid who enjoyed math I had a lot of fun trying to arrive at the correct answer while most of my peers just wanted to get the "correct" answer because they were being tested on it, anything else that wasn't the correct answer had no value to them. I believe that's what you quoted refers to: >> White supremacy culture shows up in math classrooms when... There is a greater focus on getting the "right" answer than understanding concepts and reasoning. > When designing airplane parts, there are definitely right and wrong answers. Focus on getting the right answer makes kids not value the process to get to the right answers, getting the right answer is a result of a process they need to learn but if they are only tested on if the answer is right or wrong they won't learn the concepts and reasoning, they will memorise a formula and apply it at wrong times/places because they don't know why the formula is what it is.

WalterBright 2y ago
You can set up the equations many ways, but then there's "turning the crank", aka "plug and grind" and there's the correct answer, and everything else is wrong. Yes, I know that singularities are special cases, as well as two roots for the square root, etc. > they won't learn the concepts and reasoning Memorizing comes first for children. Concepts and reasoning comes later. In college, concepts and reasoning come first, and memorization is unimportant. I remember memorizing the times tables when I was 5 or 6. I'd draw out the 10*10 matrix and fill in all the boxes, using addition. Eventually I noticed that "times" meant add the number that many times, and that I didn't have to memorize it anymore. But the work memorizing it laid the groundwork for the epiphany.

by piva00 2y ago

WalterBright 2y ago

You can set up the equations many ways, but then there's "turning the crank", aka "plug and grind" and there's the correct answer, and everything else is wrong. Yes, I know that singularities are special cases, as well as two roots for the square root, etc. > they won't learn the concepts and reasoning Memorizing comes first for children. Concepts and reasoning comes later. In college, concepts and reasoning come first, and memorization is unimportant. I remember memorizing the times tables when I was 5 or 6. I'd draw out the 10*10 matrix and fill in all the boxes, using addition. Eventually I noticed that "times" meant add the number that many times, and that I didn't have to memorize it anymore. But the work memorizing it laid the groundwork for the epiphany.