Feb 1, 2010

Math - what are these people talking about......

I have kids in school and for the first few years in school I was trying to figure out what they were doing to solve basic math problems.

After watching this video I have a few answers to those questions.

Please take the time to watch this video - it's worth it.

2 comments:

Cindi said...

Yay! I'm glad you posted this video!

ZM said...

I'm intrigued. We've been talking about math at the Eldest's school for some time now, and the lattice and magic seven methods are perfect examples of why: they teach a method, or procedure for solving a problem. But not the essential understanding of why or how the problem is solved.

The cluster problem approach seems to get closer to that understanding, but not quite. And yet, I know that I didn't learn the basic concepts from the "standard" formulas that she demonstrates. And according to my reading, many American children learn the algorithm - but not the concept.

I'm leaving this video with a sense that none of the three methods (traditional, TERC or Elementary Mathematics) is doing the job. Which makes me wonder why she thinks that Singapore would.