Posted on 08/11/2010 10:38:23 AM PDT by Freeport
Response: In general, Americans no. Those that have recently invaded, yes!
"Students who have learned to memorize symbols and who have a limited understanding of the equal sign will tend to solve problems such as 4+3+2=( )+2 by adding the numbers on the left, and placing it in the parentheses, then add those terms and create another equal sign with the new answer," he explains. "So the work would look like 4+3+2=(9)+2=11.
That should take 5 minutes in class to correct that error. Now what are you going to teach during the other 45 minutes of math class?
“Students’ Understanding of the Equal Sign Not Equal, Professor Says”
No kidding Prof. I predict that students who can’t use the word “and” in a sentence will score poorly on english composition exams.
How we get to this sorry state? Blame the teachers unions who took the American education system from being highly rated in the 1950-60’s to the dysfunctional system we currently have.
We have to understand the cultural, emotional, and contextual differences in the perception of the equal sign, which in the case of many groups means “approximately”, “not exactly”, “maybe” or “whatever.”
Everyone gets an “A”, and feels good about themselves and math.
Math Education: An Inconvenient Truth
Lady Gaga is entertaining. Fity is fruity.
We taught our kids math ~ no sense waiting on the public schools to get around to it. My goodness, this area was still stuck on the Souvrn’ idea that children cannot be ready for Algebra until their first or second year of highschool ~ right when they should be working with trig and solid geometry!
That makes sense. Makes me glad my kids are homeschooled too. I’m going to have to test my 7 year old and 4 year old tonight and see if they ‘get it.’
Tailisha, use the = sign in an equation.
All animals are = except black pigs and they are more equal
A job well done by American public schools. Let’s give them another $26 million.
You took the words right out of my mouth! Excellent (better than I could have done) analysis!
Let’s give them another $26 trillion.
You know it’s bad when, almost every time you go to a C-store or a fast food restaurant, you get a befuddled look when you hand the cashier 4 dollar bills, a quarter, and two pennies in payment for a $4.17 bill. The cashier seldom understands why you handed them the extra two pennies because he cannot perform elementary school arithmetic. The few exceptions I’ve encountered recently have been South Asian cashiers.
Gee, do you suppose that correct understanding of the equal sign could be a proxy for higher intelligence, and it is that intelligence that actually explains greater academic success?
That explains EVERYTHING.
IMHO, this is due to the equal sign on the calculator; on a calculator, the “=” means, more or less, “execute.” So the students are conditioned to think that “=” means “sum (execute) the equation preceding the equal sign.”
To those of us who did math pre-calculator, the answer to the question is obvious. To those who do math only with calculators, it may not be so obvious.
What set me off was when she gave me an analysis which provided an answer to three significant digits, because "that's what the model said" and it was a precise answer. I thereupon demonstrated to her that, in fact, the model results were WRONG.
"But look on the bright side...you may have given me a wrong answer, but it was a precise wrong answer."
(deep sigh)
I think we did that in grade 11.
We did math before calculators, and writing before computers. That’s all changed.
Did you happen to see this? Since you have school age children, please tell me this isn’t so.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.