U.S. Math Education Does Not Add Up

In the Learning Moments video clip collection, "Early Mathematical Thinking," children can be seen trying various strategies to solve physical problems. The article in Scientific American Mind "Why Math Education in the U.S. Doesn’t Add Up," supports the idea that this is the best way to master math:

"In 2005 psychologist Margarete Delazer of Medical University of Innsbruck in Austria and her colleagues took functional MRI scans of students learning math facts in two ways: some were encouraged to memorize and others to work those facts out, considering various strategies. The scans revealed that these two approaches involved completely different brain pathways. The study also found that the subjects who did not memorize learned their math facts more securely and were more adept at applying them. Memorizing some mathematics is useful, but the researchers' conclusions were clear: an automatic command of times tables or other facts should be reached through 'understanding of the underlying numerical relations.'"

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