tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2516188730140164076.post4353549706709988001..comments2024-03-22T06:06:19.716-04:00Comments on Devlin's Angle: Most Math Problems Do Not Have a Unique Right AnswerMathematical Association of Americahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10559021045290192742noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2516188730140164076.post-31619612191107391712014-09-14T02:38:23.205-04:002014-09-14T02:38:23.205-04:00This is a great read!
I grew up at a time when cal...This is a great read!<br />I grew up at a time when calculators are not allowed for basic computations and students are forced to memorize the multiplication table. I finished my studies with great math grades but all because I was able to memorize algorithm and formulas. I never understood fully what the Pythagorean Theorem is for one. I am so used in memorization that once I forgot a formula, then I am stumped and cannot move on.<br />Hopefully with the onset of the Common Core State Standards students would be encouraged and trained to use their critical thinking and mathematical thinking. That they would be able to deeply explore, justify and prove why one thing is true.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17032847667945591045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2516188730140164076.post-12295109496960661672014-08-17T12:37:42.182-04:002014-08-17T12:37:42.182-04:00This is great. I remember being really annoyed wh...This is great. I remember being really annoyed when a calculus class in university showed me that every series had an infinite number of correct next entries (or something very like that - it *was* back in the early 14th century, after all). I was still smarting from generating so many wrong answers in grade-school exercises designed to elicit one, and only one, answer. I thought then and think now that kids would be able to examine the different solutions they came up with and learn to see the different degrees of elegance in them - to learn why some answers were better than others. I hope this new approach is trying to teach kids to think.Isabel Gibsonhttp://www.traditionaliconoclast.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2516188730140164076.post-37430418244974949062014-08-02T18:57:56.776-04:002014-08-02T18:57:56.776-04:00Very nice read!
This reminds me very much of what...Very nice read!<br /><br />This reminds me very much of what I discussed with my friends in my last year in high school here in the Netherlands.<br /><br />I'm afraid that the educational system in the Netherlands is still very much focused on repetitive problems (that indeed only have 1 correct answer!) and not at all on the ideas and concepts behind the problems (what am I actually doing when I calculate this primitive?).<br /><br />It's frustrating to realize that: yes, I'm able to do the calculation, but if you were to ask me what I'm actually doing I'd be almost clueless. On the one hand I have all this knowledge on how certain systems work and how number relate to each other, but the isomorphism between the numbers and the real world is missing. <br /><br />Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09941329825490289800noreply@blogger.com