I've heard it remarked that what happens in Europe is just a preview of what's coming to our shores here in the US. If that's true,
then this makes me smile:
Pupils aged 11 will be given extra marks for employing traditional methods of
calculation in end-of-year Sats tests, it emerged.
Children who get the wrong answer but attempt sums using long and short
multiplication or adding and subtracting in columns will be rewarded with
additional points.
Ministers insisted the changes – being introduced from 2016 – were intended to
stop pupils using “clumsy, confusing and time-consuming” methods of working
out.
This includes so-called “chunking” and “gridding” where pupils are encouraged
to break problems down into numerous component stages before an answer is
reached.
*snip*
Elizabeth Truss, the Education Minister, will outline the plans in a speech to
the North of England Education Conference in Sheffield on Thursday.
Speaking before the address, she said: “Chunking and gridding are tortured
techniques but they have become the norm in recent years. Children just end
up repeatedly adding or subtracting numbers, and batches of numbers.
“They may give the right answer but they are not quick, efficient methods, nor
are they methods children can build on, and apply to more complicated
problems.
Everything old truly is new again.
1 comment:
oh my gosh!
chunking and gridding!
wow!
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