Mirage of Success: Learning the Math Trick

If you, like me, have ever waffled on the debate of whether we “just teach them the trick” for math before, take a careful look at this side-by-side comparison of students showing their math thinking.

Example A:

Example B:

My question is this: even if teaching the trick gets students to pass the test and ace the class and get into the college–have we, as educators, truly done our jobs?

If we’ve never heard their creative approaches to making sense of math because we’re too busy telling them the right way to “borrow,” have we joined them in their learning journey, or are we scripting it?

If we just keep focusing our energy in helping them memorize, are our students ever going to see themselves as competent mathematicians? 

featured image: Shubhojit Ghose

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