That article was an absolute waste of time.
What a horrible thing to do to kids.
This article brings into specific relief a murky problem. Written by mathematicians it makes logical sense. The questions is how does the student learn best. Teaching formulas emphasizes the what. Teaching why (math theory) is important as well. I didn’t get the why until advanced college math and abstract theory.
On its face, the description of looking for a ten is not bad. It’s how some people process. It’s logical but requires decent theoretical understanding. When one arrives at a solution the next question should be — does it make sense. Whether dealing with integers or exponents the concept of base 10 and power is essentially how to use a slide rule. Something that should still be taught and how the NASA controllers dealt with these problems prior to high speed processing of computers.
From a theoretical standpoint all this is trying to accomplish is theory with number crunching. It is looking to individualize education for maximum success applying rules of logic.
The problem is that the education majors who teach are as dumb as fence posts and if they can’t think logically there is no hope. In order for this to work, teachers also must have some sophistication in education theory. But most teachers are worthless 20 somethings more interested in telling their story about their sexual orientation and cramming it down a kids throat than actually teaching.
Some above have stated unidimensional thinking. It works for them. They crunch numbers. Unfortunately, people think and process differently. I actually think this is an excellent method as laid out but everyone is missing the point. It requires work to determine how a student thinks individually as opposed to everyone learns the same.
When one is unable to comprehend this it leads to the statements of politics instead of a well reasoned but difficult approach. It reveals in some that if they can’t think in a different way then everyone else is wrong
In order to make common core work (multiple ways to solve is a valid statement) it would require extensive education for the educators. In the current system that will not happen.