Monday, October 6, 2008
What does it mean to "do mathematics?"
According to Van De Walle, "doing mathematics" means that students are engaging in the science of pattern and order, and doing mathematics is effortful and often takes alot of time (13). I think that in order to be able to"do mathematics" children should be actively involve in the process of understanding how the problem works, how they can connect it to their lives, and how they can solve the problem in not just way but in maybe several ways. We are taught in school that there is only one way to do a problem, but in all reality there could be several ways to solve the problem and get a probable solution. "Doing mathematics" also means that it shouldn't always be easy, we should be able to dig into it and struggle a little bit. According to Van De Walle there are many verbs we can correlate to "doing mathematics." For example, we can correlate explore, investigate, conjecture, solve, justify, etc (13). When students are engaged in these verbs it is very impossible for them to be passive learners or observers (13).
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Doing mathematics is important to get the students actively involved with the process of learning. Students need to connect what they are learning and the world around them to create generalization and the knowledge they uptain will be remebered for a long time. Students become more active learners then they become better thinkers and problem solvers. Making sure that the students are aware that there is more than one way to do a problem and not corner them into traditional thinking and not letting them expand their knowledge in that protion of mathematics.
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