Previously I wrote about students not using equals signs properly. So apparently some guys at Texas A&M are getting papers published on this subject, and identifying it as a key way to distinguish between high-functioning and low-functioning math students and national education systems.
Reported is stuff like: "The two researchers suggest using mathematics manipulatives". I disagree. The problem is not lack of manipulatives. The problem is that nobody ever told students what the fucking equals sign means.
I'm semi-convinced that a greater emphasis needs to be paid on the physical syntax and grammar of writing (and as a result, reading) mathematics by students throughout the education system. But that's me.
I'm with both of y'alls. An awful lot of my students have no idea that an equation is something to be *read* and figured out... instead of a jigsaw puzzle where you push things around. Lots of them do a whole lot better -- but it takes practice -- when I emphasize the meaning of the symbols.
ReplyDeleteSome of them, however, really do need a concrete reference to make that meaning thing happen.
Unfortunately, most people who drag out the m anipulatives drag 'em out, do stuff with them, then hand out problems and hope the student figures out the connection.
One of our profs handed out little cereal boxes & drink boxes to her pre-algebra class to figure out their volumes. At least a third of them had absolutely *no* idea that this was what the formula they'd just done on three homework assignments was talking about.