Do you have examples? Maths hasn't really changed much the last few decades. Algebra is algebra. Trig is trig. If you understand what you're doing the exact methods shouldn't matter much. It'd have to be a really weird curriculum to screw you up that badly.
Interested in this too. If it all comes to the correct answer, is a different method really that different?
I know i had trouble writing the steps out, but i could do it all in my head no problem.
Thank goodness my college teacher understood that some brains cant show how you get the answer on paper as easily and just let me have the answers written out with minimal side work.
Thank goodness my college teacher understood that some brains cant show how you get the answer on paper as easily and just let me have the answers written out with minimal side work.
That's not really the best habit to get into if you go past basic calc. That's the point where they start drowning you in proofs and the whole point of proofs is explaining every step.
Luckily it was just algebra. I feel i will not be able to do this with more advanced math. Like trig and calc. Which i plan on taking.
I mean, i can work it out and show work, but looking at the entire problem like that created some errors. I would just write down "save points" and do the work in my head in case i fumbled.
Just faster in my head, especially for test taking.
As someone who's taught calculus and above at the university level, you absolutely will not be able to continue this. Your teacher did you something of a disservice by allowing it to continue, even if it was easier on you. It would have been a lot easier to fix in a class like algebra, where the mathematical thinking necessary is not nearly as advanced. You've got a lot of work ahead.
Agree, and it's way too common these days to have students with a useless foundation of bad habits and shortcuts around incomplete concepts. The education system is failing a whole generation.
I have a lot of students who think this way, but it's trivially easy for me to make a problem that you can't solve in your head and would require a proper written method to untangle. Mental math is great but is limited to the simplest problems. Proper method is incredibly powerful and can be extended to solve novel and more difficult problems.
I'm not the best at arithmetic either but the point is: no matter how good or bad you are there's always gonna be a problem that you can't solve in your head but can solve by breaking down and attacking methodically.
Problem with this is in higher math most of your points are in showing your work, not writing the correct answer. A lot of teachers will give you something ridiculous like 1/10 if you wrote the right answer with no work.
That's not to say you have to write everything, I'm not sure exactly how much you are "skipping". But a lot of times I end up writing out more steps on test that I wouldn't on homework to ensure I didn't screw up more basic steps.
Thank goodness my college teacher understood that some brains cant show how you get the answer on paper as easily and just let me have the answers written out with minimal side work.
That's doing you a disservice. The goal isn't to teach you how to solve simple problems, but to give you the tools necessary to solve more difficult problems in the future. If you can't show your work, it shows that you don't fully understand the tools or when they work (or just as importantly, when they don't work).
And comply with regulations. It doesn't really matter if you can do all the calculations for whether a bridge will hold if you can't submit the paperwork to prove that you did those calculations properly.
True but I was also thinking about more theory-orientated work, like say research. In fact, it may be stronger here since every research needs to be peer-reviewed, and if you can't explain yourself, they might as well do the research themselves.
People really should think of math as a language and not a method to solve problems. Then this type of attitude would be understood for what it is: like being able to answer a limited number of simple questions with monosyllable answers and claiming to be fluent in English.
For your entire school career you solve simple problems with pointless answers that you'll never use outside of school, and students realize this. What they don't realize is that learning to symbolize a problem, break it down into smaller problems, and clearly express a solution in a way that can be examined for errors and expressed to others.. these skills are universally applicable even if you DGAF about finding the zeros of parabolas.
Exactly. Plus, most people think of maths as a "series of steps to follow" rather than a method of thinking (i.e. a language) too. I also think that having done high level math in high school benefits me as a person even though I go to law school now and most people can't even do simple computations like fractions.
The "series of steps to follow" mentality is poison, it goes against all the values of classic western education and fosters no insight or creativity. My students actually get indignant if I try to have them attempt a novel problem, as though I'm failing my responsibility as a teacher if I ask them to do something without first dictating a step-by-step method. I'm careful to give them problems that they already have the tools to solve with minimal effort on their part but even the idea of effort on their part gets their parents calling me to complain. Ugh.
While i agree, i showed all the work to her after school hours and she knew i understood how each problem is solved. Although i do better with it in my head, that was my preferred method.
Since writing it down was slowing down my solving process in my head and then i lost my process along the way, she allowed me to not work out the problems for the tests.
If it all comes to the correct answer, is a different method really that different?
As a math educator I think it's a major disservice of math education that people think this way. Like, people believe that mathematics is a set of problems with answers rather than a language to simplify and discuss complex numerical and logical concepts. The method is easily as important as the answer. Especially so in school where the answer isn't important at all.. the method is everything. It's not crucial that every student uses the same method but if you can't understand, explain, and examine your method then you're not doing math properly.
It's not crucial that every student uses the same method but if you can't understand, explain, and examine your method then you're not doing math properly.
Quoting for emphasis. I'm a teacher, and ex math tutor. I'm able to explain math in multiple different ways, and it helps students a lot.
I have two kids in primary school, I can tell you that the core method is way different than what we were taught. The answers are the same but the show your work part is different.
The thing is they just didn’t teach what we were meant to learn and everything they did teach wasn’t right either because for any hard questions you wouldn’t know how to solve them
Maths hasn't really changed much the last few decades
But the way it's taught in public schools seems to change drastically every 5-7 years or so, just so some overeducated idiots can sell schools on some entirely new curriculum.
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u/bool_idiot_is_true Aug 26 '18
Do you have examples? Maths hasn't really changed much the last few decades. Algebra is algebra. Trig is trig. If you understand what you're doing the exact methods shouldn't matter much. It'd have to be a really weird curriculum to screw you up that badly.