The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) begs to differ. Math is a sensemaking endeavor. In this webinar, math educator (Annie Fetter) discusses the power of centering “sense-making” in math class. 

Students often believe that math is a ‘doing’ instead of a sensemaking process. ‘[Michelle’s son] was struggling to “remember” 28/4. When [she] asked him, “How do you think about 28/4?′′ He replied, “Mom, you aren’t supposed to think about it, you are just supposed to do it!!”’ Wonder where he got that idea?

This example illustrates how disconnected students can be from mathematics when we don’t emphasize the importance of thinking and striving to understand the concepts. Unfortunately, too many students believe doing math and doing it the way the teacher ‘showed’ makes them good students. We need to disrupt this misguided belief urgently. 

Getting students to think, analyze, and question a math problem or procedure leads to improved learning and higher tests scores. Do you want to see what this looks like in a sixth-grade class that went from average to excellent in math? Find out here.