[Phys-L] Re: student mathematical capability

[Hugh Haskell <hhaskell@MINDSPRING.COM>]

At 12:24  -0600 9/14/05, SSHS KPHOX wrote:
> However, as I have watched students get pushed to achieve more and sooner
> ( and there are many that can) I find the early teaching in the younger
> grades focusing on an algorithmic approach and foregoing the development
> of real understanding. I am not convinced that all students are really
> ready to master algebra  in grade 8 at age 13 or 14. Many can but not all
> by any means. I should not be surprised.
I suspect that this is mostly due to the fact that teachers of
mathematics at the middle-school level are themselves mostly stuck in
an algorithmic mode. If students were taught from the very beginning
to understand why 2+2=4, etc., rather than merely being required to
memorize that fact, or more importantly, why 2*2=4 and 4/2=2, they
wouldn't have nearly some much trouble transitioning to the type of
math that requires this sort of thinking. But to do that requires a
complete restructuring of how we teach early math, and after the "new
math" debacle in the 60s, it is unlikely that will happen any time
soon. However, if we did do some restructuring and the students saw
why multiplication works, as a form of repeated addition, I rather
think it would become much easier for them to then memorize the
multiplication tables that we all decry their lack of knowledge of.

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto:haskell@ncssm.edu>
<mailto:hhaskell@mindspring.com>

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