The New York Times has an article on schools switching to a new method of teaching math. From the article we learn that
Principals and teachers say that slowing down the learning process gives students a solid math foundation upon which to build increasingly complex skills, and makes it less likely that they will forget and have to be retaught the same thing in later years.
Read more: here. I think this method makes some sense.
This method would probably be more useful in primary and secondary schools. I remember money and percentages confused me initially in elementary school: a quarter is 25 cents and also one-fourth (don’t ask why this confused me, I just remember it did). Understanding the basics is crucial for mastery of advanced topics. For students at higher levels of math, if your understanding of derivatives is shaky, then first-order conditions will seem difficult. I remember struggling over certain macro-economic calculations and realizing that maybe I should have paid more attention in Calculus II when we covered series.
In my last math class, a combination of linear algebra and differential equations, I felt most material was covered too slowly. Would I have appreciated of the usefulness of knowing the kernel, ranges and their respective dimensions of vector spaces the course allotted more than a couple of classes to these concepts? Who knows? Maybe I would have experienced some deep insight or maybe I would have just been bored. I doubt I’ll ever again be in an environment where I need to take math classes but I would be willing to give this slow(er) learning method an honest chance.
