by Al Cuoco
The eight Standards for Mathematical Practice described in the Common Core State Standards have opened up a great deal of discussion in K–12 mathematics. That’s a good thing. Infusing school mathematics with an emphasis on what mathematics professionals do and think holds a great deal of promise for bringing some coherence and texture to the zoo of special purpose methods and tools that clutter our curricula and state tests.
Simply raising the idea that there is a practice of mathematics—just as there’s a practice of medicine or teaching—and then detailing some facets of that practice is so very refreshing. My work and that of my colleagues at EDC has always put mathematical thinking—the habits of mind that are indigenous to our discipline—at the core of our work with teachers. What we’ve learned from expert teachers has led me to think more carefully about what it means to “work like a mathematician.” Here are some of the things I’ve learned.
It’s always been implicit in the design of the tasks and problems that we use in our professional development work that the problems provide a context in which one can employ certain mathematical practices. But I get the impression that the tasks themselves are often taken to codify (and sometimes define) that practice.
Read more at:
https://blogs.ams.org/matheducation/2018/08/17/mathematical-practices/