tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6414622914006646376.post7547707255187214127..comments2024-01-27T08:49:12.307-05:00Comments on An "Old Math Dog" Learning New Tricks: Surprises aboundLisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11928419408011193721noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6414622914006646376.post-9846827696047791572011-10-04T18:29:46.063-04:002011-10-04T18:29:46.063-04:00Thanks for the reminder, Chris. I needed to see th...Thanks for the reminder, Chris. I needed to see that.<br /><br />--LisaLisahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11928419408011193721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6414622914006646376.post-8690060932759650932011-10-04T10:17:27.743-04:002011-10-04T10:17:27.743-04:00OK. Here's the thing about "real world pr...OK. Here's the thing about "real world problems". They almost never present themselves so cleanly as being "about one-variable equations". Consider our friend Dan Meyer's recent <a href="http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=11588" rel="nofollow">Partial Products task</a>. Many of us would see it as a very clean application of proportions. But a read of the comments reveals that there are many good, solid mathematical approaches to the task. Often as math teachers, we have to let go of our iron-fisted grip on which strategies students are going to use as they work a problem. If we have chosen the problem well, <i>someone's</i> gonna use the strategy we want to teach, and we can use that student's work to make progress with the whole class. But we can't force students to see the same mathematical strategy we see (believe me, I tried last week with my College Algebra students and it just doesn't work-they'll submit but they won't understand unless it's connected to their own mathematical ideas).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com