pencil and paper

InterestedTeacher raised a question on the SlideRules thread:

Is 'less pen and paper' the real goal [of constructivist math]?

She was responding to a line by Steven Leinwand, Math Ed Consultant, in his (in)famous paper "It's time to abandon computational algorithms":

Shouldn't we be as eager to end our obsessive love affair with pencil-and-paper computation as we were to move on from outhouses and sundials? In short, we know and should agree that the long-division "gazinta'' (goes into, as in four "goes into'' 31 seven times ... ) algorithm and its computational cousins are obsolete in light of everyday societal realities.

She has started a new user page to address, through examples, the question of whether less-pencil-and-paper-computation is really the goal of the constructivist curricula.

Our preliminary conclusion: constructivism is no threat to the logging industry.


swoop and swoop
notes on integer, subtraction, & absolute value study sheet
Wayne Wickelgren on why math is confusing, & Carolyn on procedural memory
KUMON & hands-on math
More Singapore math
Pencil and paper
The craft of math

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