However, is it that are students are expected to do math differently or rather think differently about mathematics?
We've also been told this is a "new math", which brings some baggage since the term has been used so loosely and incorrectly over the years every time there's a new educational initiative or reform.
However, is there new math to learn to do or are there new expectations for demonstrating and communicating mathematical thinking?
What's the difference?
Doing math is an operation. It's about arithmetic and applying mathematical procedures such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, estimation, and measurement to solve an algorithmic or story problem correctly and successfully. It's all about the reproducing and applying facts and procedures to achieve or attain that correct answer because, in the end, that's all that mattered - get the correct answer!
What Is Mathematics? |
Our primary concern should be that we do not confuse doing math with thinking mathematically. Doing math is about using math to answer algorithmic questions and solve story or word problems. Thinking mathematically is about how analyzing how and evaluating why mathematical concepts, practices, and processes are used to address math problems and creating new ideas, procedures, and ways of thinking about math.
What Is Mathematical Thinking? |
Mathematical Thinking in Problem-Based Learning |
Mathematical Reasoning and Proofing |
Communicating Mathematical Thinking |
Cognitive Rigor Questions for Mathematical Thinking |
Communicating Mathematical Thinking |
Communicating and Connecting Mathematical Thinking |
Connecting Mathematical Thinking to Real World Situations |
Representing Mathematical Thinking |
If there is a "new math" our students are learning, it's that thinking mathematically through problem solving, defending and justifying response and results through reasoning and proofing; analyzing how and evaluating why those responses and results were achieved or attained using oral, written creative, and technical communication; establishing connections between mathematical concepts and ideas as well as between math and the real world, and using concrete representations to model and interpret not only mathematical but also physical and social phenomena are just as essential as doing the math to find those responses or results.
So how can we get our students to think mathematically as well as do the math? Use these problems as a guide to create mathematical experiences that encourage students to think critically, creatively, and deeply. Connect each mathematical concept or idea to a real world issue, problem, or situation and have them examine and explore how math can be used to explain what happens in life. Show, don't tell, how math is an essential concept they will use in some aspect of their personal and professional lives. Make math real, and encourage them to think about as well as do the math.
The true challenge may not to be the children but rather us adults who were most likely not expected to think as deeply about math. We were just expected to do the math just as we were taught to get the correct answer. However, math is no longer about correct and incorrect answers. It's also about how responses and results can be defended, explained, and justified using mathematical thinking.
How can we have the adults develop deeper knowledge, understanding, and awareness of the new expectations for math? At your next staff development or parent meeting, present this quote and the corresponding questions to the adults in your audience. Not only will they hopefully develop depth of knowledge about the new expectations for mathematics but also the importance and value of going beyond calculating and computing to communicating, connecting, and considering mathematics.
What Is Mathematics? |
-- E.M.F.
By
This a perfect comparison about the two sides of mathematics: not just the practice of algorithms and application but also the rich metacognitive tensions at play in art of thinking mathematically. I will be referencing this page frequently! Thank you! (by the way, there is a typo of "soling" instead of "solving" in the fourth paragraph from the end *grin*)
ReplyDeleteIn may ways, "thinking mathematically" (which I define as something akin to "mathematical thinking") is no different than "thinking philosophically" in the sense that both are exercises in critical thinking. Of course, philosophy and math have a shared past in logic ... and Aristotle (who was more of a biologist than a mathematician; Plato was the mathematician) was the founder of logic.
ReplyDeleteFine, but with the abundance of technical aids, perhaps we should reduce focus on simple procedural math (e.g. long division). Or do these complicated algorithms actually teach the students something about maths?
ReplyDeleteIn any case, I think it is very important that teachers contemplate WHY we want the students to learn whatever we are teaching them.
All I know is that this school year my focus on WHY math works and not just HOW to do it allowed my students to increase significantly in their standardizes assessment scores. My fifth grade class had a passing rate of 75%. That same group of students had 100% passing on the state assessment this academic year. The difference was in how they learned the language of math and why the math works the way it does. They had plenty of HOW to do math, but they had no understanding of why they had to do the things they did.
ReplyDeleteGreat article. I am a homeschool mom and for the past 3 years I have been holding a math club in my home. Not only do I try and prepare the middle schoolers for various math contests, but I also try and get them to have fun with math.
ReplyDeleteThe big disconnect between their knowledge of how to "do" math and a real understanding of how math can be applied to problems is quickly apparent. Most students who are achieving As will struggle to solve a simple problem if they don't know what sort of problem it is (ie if they aren't told this is a ratio problem, or percentage problem etc). They have no idea where to start and how to analyze a problem and determine how math can help solve it.
I feel that this would be so much easier if it was integrated into daily life by parents and teachers with children from a young age. For example, on shopping trips get kids to figure out which size of a product is the most economical, or what the new price of an item on sale is. Baking with my kids gave me a chance to teach ratios and on a long car trip, when the kids asked "How much longer till we get there?" I told them to watch for the next distance board and check the speed of the car and figure it out.
"Doing Math and Thinking Mathematically"
ReplyDeleteI like the ring of that phrase since it describes what the next iteration of the Common Core standards for math should become, to my experience as a now-retired instructor of physics, math, and electronics technology at a technical college.
As the Francis article says, "Our primary concern should be that we do not confuse doing math with thinking mathematically. Doing math is about using math to answer algorithmic questions and solve story or word problems."
While the article goes on to address the mathematical thinking portion of the statement, I would like to address the unspoken, forgotten part, which is at the heart of the goals of the next iteration of the Common Core standards, I feel.
I would like to focus on the part that describes what we mean as "Doing Math". In that regard, I would like to propose the following axioms as "self-evident truths" for high-school math graduation standards:
- ALL students perform pencil-paper computations of dollar and cent problems involving whole and decimal numbers, and common fractions.
- ALL students perform measurements using a variety of instruments in US Customary and metric units, including linear and angular geometric measures, as data for further computational inputs.
- ALL students perform computations involving comparisons of numbers, including: inequalities, ratios, rates, percents, percent change, as well as basic statistical computations.
-ALL students perform formula calculations involving the substitution of quantitative values in place of literal symbols, using all versions of typical life and workplace formulas. (In other words, the three formulas for an area computation are provided, rather than solved.) Reference materials are provided, and may be used during tests.
- ALL students perform calculations involving powers and roots, especially as applied to geometric uses.
- ALL students perform calculations involving signed numbers, including: inequalities, statistical histograms, and 2- and 3-axis coordinate systems.
- ALL students manipulate typical geometric and money formulas, using techniques to isolate a given unknown.
- ALL students utilize reference materials and calculators (except for the whole and decimal computations and common fractions mentioned above), including testing.
- NO students should need to use the words "algebra" or "proof" in the performance of the above tasks.
These generalized statements are provided as the essential topics for the Next Generation CCSS, in my opinion (NG-CCSS?). They include what EVERY high school graduate NEEDS TO KNOW to be prepared for life and work in this 21st Century. They include nothing of what SOME people SHOULD know if they wish to go beyond to pursue additional training for skilled and professional careers. And these standards have nothing to do with what a few believe is NICE TO KNOW about appreciating mathematics in many ways.
Thus, these are the elements of "Doing Math", imho.
doing math and thinking mathematically is so awesome....I think this will help some students love math
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