When you think back on elementary school math, do you have fond memories of the countless worksheets you completed on adding fractions or solving division problems? Probably not.
Researchers and 糖心动漫vlog have been pushing for years for schools to move away from teaching math through a set of equations with no context around them, and towards an approach that pushes kids to use numerical reasoning to solve real problems, mirroring the way that they鈥檒l encounter the use of math as adults.
The strategy is largely about setting kids up for success in the professional world, and 糖心动漫vlog can lay the groundwork decades earlier, even in kindergarten.
Here are some tips for using a real world problem-solving approach to teaching math to elementary school students.
1. There鈥檚 more than one right answer and more than one right method
A 鈥渞eal world task鈥� can be as simple as asking students to think of equations that will get them to a particular 鈥渢arget鈥� number, say, 14. Students could say 7 plus 7 is 14 or they could say 25 minus 11 is 14. Neither answer is better than the other, and that lesson teaches kids that there are multiple ways to use math to solve problems.
2. Give kids a chance to explain their thinking
The process you use to solve a real world math problem can be just as important as arriving at the correct answer, said Robbi Berry, who teaches 5th grade in Las Cruces, N.M. Her students have learned not to ask her if a particular answer is correct, she said, because she鈥檒l turn the question back on them, asking them to explain how they know that it is right. She also gives her students a chance to explain to one another how they arrived at a particular solution, 鈥淲e always share our strategies so that the kids can see the different ways鈥� to arrive at an answer, she said. Students get excited, she said, when one of their classmates comes up with an approach they never would have thought of. 鈥淢ath is creative,鈥� Berry said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just learning and memorizing.鈥�
3. Be willing to deal with some off-the-wall answers
Problem solving does not necessarily mean going to the word problems in your textbook, said Latrenda Knighten, a mathematics instructional coach in Baton Rouge, La. For little kids, it can be as simple as showing a group of geometric shapes and asking what they have in common. Students may go off track a bit by talking about things like color, she said, but teachers can steer them towards thinking about things like how a rectangle differs from a triangle.
4. Let your students push themselves
Tackling these richer, real-world problems can be tougher than solving equations on a worksheet. And that is a good thing, said Jo Boaler, a professor at Stanford University and an expert on math education. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really good for your brain to struggle,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 want kids getting right answers all the time because that鈥檚 not giving their brains a really good workout.鈥� These types of problems require collaboration, a skill that many don鈥檛 associate with math, but that is key to how math reasoning works beyond the classroom. The complexity and difficulty of the tasks means that students 鈥渉ave to talk to each other and really figure out what to do, what鈥檚 a good method?鈥�
5. Celebrate 鈥榝avorite mistakes鈥� to encourage intellectual risk taking
Wrong answers should be viewed as learning opportunities, Berry said. When one of her students makes an error, she asks if she can share it with the class as a 鈥渇avorite mistake.鈥� Most of the time, students are comfortable with that, and the class will work together to figure how the misstep happened.
6. Remember there鈥檚 no such thing as a being born with a 鈥榤ath brain鈥�
Some teachers believe that certain students are just naturally good at math, and others are not, Boaler said. But that鈥檚 not true. 鈥淏rains are constantly shaping, changing, developing, connecting, and there is no fixed anything,鈥� said Boaler, who often works alongside neuroscientists. What鈥檚 more, many elementary school teachers lack confidence in their own math abilities, she said. 鈥淭hey think they can鈥檛 do [math],鈥� Boaler said. 鈥淎nd they often pass those ideas on鈥� to their students.
