September 18, 2015 at 05:25PM Here’s Why Math is Taught Differently Now

Excellent video! If the "new" methods of teaching math are driving you nuts, WATCH THIS! I was first introduced to this new method when I was in college. And yeah, at first we all whined and complained and thought it was stupid. It didn't take long to figure out how useful this is, though! I am 100% behind understanding-based math versus "do it because I said to do it" math. I lost my enjoyment in math around 4th or 5th grade. It just wasn't clicking for me any more. More and more algorithms were thrown at me and I'm the type of person who needs to know why something works. So math no longer made sense. It was just a lot of tricks and hoops to jump through for some magical answer. I learned more about math as a whole during two semesters of learning to teach math this way than I had through the previous decade of math classes. I taught Investigations Math for a year in 4th grade. I watched that light-bulb click over kids when suddenly what they'd been doing made sense! AND they learned how to talk about it. We have all done math these ways, we just never learned how to talk about it. How many of us reach for a calculator or piece of paper every time we need to figure out a math problem? Most of us have created methods of doing these in our minds. The difference is that kids are taught these methods, learn how to improve these methods, and know how to discuss them. If I ask you to add 20+50 there are several ways to figure that out. I personally would say that I know 2+5=7, then add the 0 to put them in the tens place. Others might work it differently. Learning that those tricks I'd started using in my mind were not only okay, but were important and could be improved was like a revelation! The biggest problem with this change in teaching math is that kids listen to their teachers and parents. Teachers who are used to just telling kids how to complete an algorithm and have never had to discuss math and how it works have a hard time. Parents who don't understand why this is useful have a hard time. The kids pick up on the complaining and use it as an excuse for why they don't need to apply themselves. We need kids learning from teachers who are enthusiastic about the program and who aren't undermined at home. Yes, straight algorithms worked for some kids, and most of us created methods for it to work for us too, but this reaches SO many more students and works with the way we all live now -- most of us with a calculator in our pockets!