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- Math instruction should enable students to generalize math skills to a non school context.
- The SCANS Report identified higher order thinking skills as critical for employment in the 21st century.
- Higher order thinking skills include problem solving, reasoning, use of resources, and processing information.
- Best practices in Special Education stress instruction in application of math skills.
- The curriculum, Life-Centered Career Education Competencies, is an example of a program that integrates math and daily living skills.
- Traditional instruction tends to focus on acquisition of basic skills.
- Teachers assume that students will make the connections between learning in the classroom and non-school applications of math information.
- Students often find little connection between their world and the world found within the school walls.
- Constructivist theory postulates that students construct their own meaning of math and math concepts.
- Metacognitive theory argues that students must learn how to think about thinking - or learn skills that will help them think through application of skills.
- Difficulties in learning to apply math include:
- memory problems;
- a lack of understanding of concepts; and
- visual, spatial, and language problems.
- Anchored instruction originates from the principles of situated cognition and inert knowledge.
- The goal of anchored instruction is to overcome the problem of inert knowledge.
- Anchored instruction effectively teaches students how to generalize information to alternative situations.
- Videodisc programs embody many of the best instructional elements contained in anchored instruction, including real life situations and connection to previously learned materials.
- Studies show students using videodisc instruction make fewer math errors when applying their knowledge to alternative settings.
- Computer simulations provide students with opportunities to solve problems in situations that may be risky, expensive, or dangerous to create in real life.
- Simulations can increase students' problem-solving abilities.
- Teachers can create their own simulations with programs such as HyperStudio or basic word processing and spreadsheet programs.
Peer tutoring, peer instruction, and peer learning communities facilitate group problem solving and communication.
- Computer networks and e-mail are useful in creating electronic learning communities.
- The combination of math and technology offers teachers wonderful opportunities for integrating math applications in their instruction.
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