One of my graduate school professors would end almost every class discussion with one simple question, “so what?” At first, I found it a bit disturbing that he would spend an entire meeting teaching something, only to ask at the end if it was even important enough to study. Over time, this question has come to frame much of what I do in my own career, especially as I try to answer that question as it relates to how and what I teach.
In our time together, we have focused a lot on teaching through problem solving and providing students opportunities to engage with and understand the mathematics. So now, I ask you: So what? What is the purpose? Is this even important enough to study? Consider this video as you ponder the question: https://youtu.be/kibaFBgaPx4 Considering the video, how would you answer, “so what?” Why is problem solving so important to study? Several years ago, I was doing a number sense presentation to a group of my online students. I had the class chorally tell me how to add two numbers, such as 19 + 37. The class, together in one voice, told me to set up the problem in the standard algorithm formation (19 on top, 37 on bottom). Next, they stated that nine plus seven is sixteen. Put down the six carry the one. One plus one plus three is five. Put down the five. The answer is 56. Then I shared with them how students with number sense would see this (I used the same standard formation): nine plus seven is sixteen. Sixteen is 10 + 6. Put the six in the ones column and carry the ten to the tens. Ten plus ten plus thirty is fifty. Fifty plus six is 56. After the presentation, one student came up to me and shared how she never saw the 16 as a single number. It never occurred to her that the “put down the six carry the one,” actually represented a number, rather it was just a step she had to do in order to figure out the answer. A very basic concept in mathematics finally made sense to her as a college student. This was an exciting aha moment for her! So again, I ask, so what? How does your teaching help to answer that question for your own students? How can it frame what you do every day? Here’s to all the “so what” questions in hopes that asking it of ourselves continues our growth as educators!
2 Comments
Barbara Winn
2/1/2019 06:54:32 am
I found this video to be very interesting. Most of my students can give me answers in sentence form if the problem makes sense, like "There is one dog for every 25 sheep." or "There are 25 times as many sheep as dogs." or "There are 120 more sheep than dogs, etc."
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Mark Montgomery
2/4/2019 11:55:27 am
Sense-making is critical in problem-solving. Unfortunately, students are often programmed to take whatever numbers are in the word problem and operate on them without much thought about whether it even makes sense. to do so.
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