Recently, I’ve been investigating Realistic Math Education (RME). I like the idea of building on what is real to the student. Because I spend a lot of time thinking about fractions, I wanted to know how RME approaches them. Luckily, Streefland wrote about his three-year teaching experiment in the Netherlands. In the experiment, students were introduced to the “Fractured …
Dan Meyer recently posted about how students aren’t easily fooled by attempts to make make tasks “real world” by placing a photo next to them. I found myself nodding along at what he described. I once naively asked a fourth grade class to write real world problems about fractions and received the following response: The …
Realistic Math Education: Defining the “real” in real world Read More »
One of the most important things students need to understand to reason proportionally is the difference between comparing two quantities in relative (multiplicative) versus absolute (additive) terms. Students often struggle with making the move to thinking multiplicatively. How can we begin to help them make this transition? The research suggests one way: Make the two …
Another way to introduce ratios: develop relative thinking Read More »
As I’ve mentioned before, proportional reasoning is complicated. Researchers refer to it as a “watershed” concept because of its role as both the capstone of K-8 mathematics and the cornerstone of high school mathematics. How do we begin to tackle such a complex concept? One of the most important things students need to understand in order …
Proportional Reasoning: Absolute vs. Relative Thinking Read More »