![]() They must collaborate and recognize there are usually multiple ways to solve a problem, skills people in the working world exercise every day. Students then share their answers in groups. Correct answers could be 100 plus 47, 823 minus 676, or other combinations of numbers. For instance, students have a few minutes to brainstorm as many equations as possible to reach the number 147. In the Howard County public schools in Maryland, elementary school math classes typically kick off with a problem-solving exercise, such as a discussion of a level-appropriate “target” number. A cat and a bird, for instance, would be a total of six feet. She pointed to a lesson she created, called “foot parade,” in which children see pictures of the feet of different types of animals and are told to select as many creatures as they need to reach a particular number of feet. While those tasks make sense for 5th graders, kindergartners-and even preschoolers-can learn math through problem solving, Boaler said. More than one right answer, more than one right method “Real mathematicians a problem in the world, and they use math to solve it.” The strategy gives students insight into how professional mathematicians think, Berry said. The house had to be built to certain specifications: a particular range of square footage, number of rooms, and sizes for those rooms. They’ve designed a house for a very picky client-played by Berry, doing her best posh lady voice. They’ve been event planners tasked with coordinating transportation to a wedding with 76 guests and four cars that can hold differing numbers of passengers. What’s more, the problem-solving approach gives teachers the opportunity to introduce students to all kinds of possible careers.īerry’s students, for instance, wear all sorts of professional hats to tackle math problems that she makes up based on real problems people face in the working world. The ones who had learned the traditional way said they saw math all around them in their professional lives but felt that their K-12 education had left them unprepared to use it for professional success. (Boaler has not conducted similar research with elementary students.)Įight years later, the students who had been exposed to the problem-solving methods were in higher-skill jobs and more likely to be looking at upward mobility in their careers than those who were taught more traditionally. For a study published in 2017 in the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, she followed a group of high school students who were learning math through real-world problem solving and another group-with similar socioeconomic characteristics-who were taught math in a more traditional way. The benefits of a real-world problem-solving approach can stick with students for years, Boaler said.
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