Sunday, April 27, 2008

Study Suggests Math Teachers Scrap Balls and Slices

A controlled experiment among college students found that those who learned their mathematical principles through abstract equations learned them better than those who learned through concrete example and those who learned by abstract equations followed by concrete example.

I've seen so many classrooms where the students are trying to figuring out how to determine how many fingers and toes there are in a room. My complaint has always been that the question is just plain weird. Who would ask that? Why would they want to know in the first place? Who would it hurt if the students tried to answer questions that had a little real world relevance?

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