The Habits Of Mind By Al Cuoco - 846 Words

Habits of Mind by Al Cuoco was an article based around how traditional ways of mathematics may not be the most suitable method in this ever-changing world. Cuoco expresses how traditional ways of math such as, memorizing a formula and getting an answer or looking at math as results and methods, isn’t preparing students for real-world math applications. This article is more about defining what math is, and then exploring it, instead of just working a formula to get an answer. â€Å"Habits of mind† is about developing a deeper way of thinking. Teachers should be guiding students to experiment with problems, look for patterns that may help you come to a conclusion, they should experiment then try it a different way, and they should describe their work, not at the end but during the process of working something out. There’s many different techniques listed in this article of what student’s should be, including visualizers, inventors, tinkerers, conjecturers, a nd guessers. These are the habits students need to be in when it comes to mathematics, Cuoco explains different points regarding each of the techniques, all of the points lead students to really comprehending what they are doing in math and how they formulated an answer. Teaching students to have these mind habits of taking a problem and analyzing every piece of it, then reworking it, or trying different rules will prepare them for the unknown math that will come in the future. My initial reactions to this article were that itShow MoreRelatedArticle Analysis of Habits of Mind706 Words   |  3 PagesIn an article titled Habits of Mind: An Organizing Principle for Mathematics Curriculum (n.d.), Cuoco, Goldenberg and Mark call for a new approach to designing mathematics curricula for the future. As they point out, it is impossible to know all that the future holds: Past experience tells us that todays first graders will graduate high school most likely facing problems that do not yet exist (Cuoco et al., p. 1). Students have been taught mathematics in the same way for a long time, the authors