Keep Them Guessing

01/31/2012

It's difficult to unlearn behaviors that made us successful in the past — speaking rather than listening; valuing people like yourself over people of different genders or from different cultures; doing things on your own rather than collaborating; making the decision yourself instead of asking different people for their perspectives. There's a whole range of behaviors that were highly functional in the hierarchical organization that are dead wrong in the flatter, more responsive, empowered organization that we're seeking to become.
Robert Haas

Young people today when confronted with a question are most likely to use the "let-me-Google-that" approach to seeking an answer. However, according to researchers interviewed for an article, "Good Guess," in Time magazine (December 12, 2011), estimation is the essential foundation for more advanced math skills. "It's also crucial for the kind of abstract thinking children need to get good grades in school and, when they're older, jobs in the knowledge-based economy."

The researchers also noted that everyone, even a baby, possesses a basic ability to estimate. But children from the earliest ages need to be encouraged to hone these estimating skills.

"One of the surprising ways to get kids thinking about numbers is to play board games with them. Flicking the spinner or rolling the dice and then counting out the spaces to move ahead on the board helps children adjust the number line that they carry around in their heads."

In a book to be released in June, 2012, Numbersight: A Street-Fighting Mathematician Teaches How to Make Better Decisions (pre-ordering available on Amazon), Sanjoy Mahajan will describe ways to promote estimating skills and "to make sense of the world by connecting, organizing, and simplifying the numbers that describe it."

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