So, I should not expect college seniors and graduate students to multiply 2.5 x .20 x .80 in their heads? Or, if I get them started by saying, 2.5 x .20 = 0.5, they should still be reaching for their calculators to figure out half of .80? (Oops, I forgot--they don't recognize that 0.5 is one-half, or that one-half of a fractional value is meaningful!)
Michael T. Scoles, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychology & Counseling University of Central Arkansas Conway, AR 72035 501-450-5418 >>> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 01/28/07 1:11 AM >>> If I ran the schools, I'd first ensure that students had really good facility with their calculators, so they have a fast and reliable way of getting the right answers. Then, with the time saved from not having to teach obsolete algorithms, I'd spend more time on teaching the underlying concepts of math and on more advanced topics. Sometimes we cling to old technology longer than we should because it's familiar and it served us so well. I'd guess there was the same debate when we first decided to give up counting on our fingers in favour of making marks on papyrus. But I think it turned out to be a pretty good decision in the end. --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english
