Why is it that so many people feel incompetent in math? Why is it that the statement, “I’m not good at math,” has been a mantra for so many, young and old alike? Why is it that math is seen as a stumbling block for school children throughout their school careers?
We learned to follow specific steps to find solutions, but far too often, little sense-making was expected…I’m sure you’ll agree that if all students had been encouraged to make sense of math ideas when they were kids, we would all be better off today.
Most of us went through a school system that taught math as a set of procedures to follow rather than as a set of tools that could equip us for solving real-life problems. We learned to follow specific steps to find solutions, but far too often, little sense-making was expected. Correct answers were valued, regardless of whether we understood how we arrived at them. And as we progressed through the years, many of us simply did what we had to do to get through each class, rarely grasping the relevance these math processes had for life beyond the classroom.
Now is the time to bring this pattern to an end! Math experts have told us for decades that math should make sense, and the way we get there is by focusing on three important elements:
- Conceptual understanding,
- Procedural fluency, and
- Applications to real life.
Children need to understand that math makes sense. This occurs through many different experiences such as using visual representations or talking about ways in which learned ideas connect with new ideas. Once the math ideas make sense, students need to develop fluency with the basics, such as math facts, multi-digit arithmetic, and problem solving strategies. All the while, they need to see many ways in which the tools of math apply in everyday life.
I’m sure you’ll agree that if all students had been able to make sense of math ideas when they were kids, we would all be better off today.
