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Yes. It's a common teaching method (and not just in math) to teach simplified methods so that people can see them in action, and once students have some experie
by lukeschlather 14y ago
Yes. It's a common teaching method (and not just in math) to teach simplified methods so that people can see them in action, and once students have some experience experimenting with them, delve into the underlying theory. I think it's a perfectly valid teaching method. Students should probably be past the point where they really think "Now I'll use FOIL" by the time they finish a class where it's used as a teaching method. But in any class, there are going to be students who don't really end up grokking the theory.
- saraid216 14y agoWhat is the underlying theory? I've taken a lot of math courses significantly past the point where I learned FOIL and I don't remember it being explained.
- Daniel_Newby 14y agoMultiplication distributes over addition.
- Someone 14y agoBut what is simplified about it? It isn't easier than (a plus b) times 'whatever' equals a times 'whatever' plus b times 'whatever' Which you can easily show geometrically, and which helps you generalize to products of sums of three terms, etc.