New Maths Explained

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   Venkatachari Mposted 6 months ago

   Hi, Friends. Here is an intelligent and useful article both for "Students & Parents" penned by Christopher Wanamaker.
   https://owlcation.com/stem/new-math-exp … odern-math

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      CWanamakerposted 6 months agoin reply to this

      Wow, thanks for sharing my article!

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   Venkatachari Mposted 6 months ago

   Christopher, your article is a brilliant piece discussing the new methods of teaching maths and the need for parents to equip themselves with these new developments to be able to assist their children in progressing their studies.

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   Peggy Wposted 6 months ago

   Reading this article reminded me of when my dad was trying to help me with an advanced algebra course.  He did the problem solving entirely different from what they were teaching me at the time.  He got the right answer doing it his way, but we had to show the process.  The answer did not matter so much as showing the process in getting there.  So it was "new math" back in the 1960s!

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   Rupert Taylorposted 6 months ago

   And, here's the nub. "Finding the “right answer” is not as important as understanding the process that’s used to get there. In other words, the student’s understanding of the process to analyze and solve a problem is more important than the answer itself."
   
   No. No. No. And No again. If you are designing a bridge, balancing a ledger, or even baking a cake, finding the right answer is ALL that matters.
   
   The bridge fell down killing dozens but, Timmy, you get an A plus because you used the approved method for calculating stress on the beams. It would have been nice if you'd got the correct number, but there you are.

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      CWanamakerposted 6 months agoin reply to this

      Good point. The "right" process but the wrong answer is still wrong indeed.

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   Peggy Wposted 6 months ago

   I agree with you, Rupert.  My dad was also dumbfounded at the time.  I will never understand why new teaching methods have to replace the tried and true methods that have worked for ages. 
   
   When learning how to spell, they used phonics when I was a child.  Just a couple years later, they abandoned it when my brothers came along.  They subsequently struggled with spelling words.  Crazy!

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   Rupert Taylorposted 6 months ago

   When my sons were in elementary school we had numerous, let's call them discussions, with educators about teaching methods.
   
   With reading they introduced "whole language" that, as far as I could tell involved guessing at words. One of my boys was absolutely lost and very frustrated with the system so my wife taught him to read, in six weeks, using phonics. His mastery of reading was, of course, chalked up as a success for whole language by the school, although we strenuously pointed out that it was phonics that did the trick.
   
   We had the same issue with new math.

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      Venkatachari Mposted 6 months agoin reply to this

      Yes, everything changes with time. What is good for today can become useless or absurd the next day. The younger generations keep on obsoleting whatever is old because they do not like used things. That is important here.
      
      So, it is we who have to keep adjusting to the times.

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