cimman:Hi cinman,rephrasing is a big problem with children. The root cause is that children are being trained to recognize problems using pattern recognition, ie. the logic, the phrasing and even the values has to be the same, before the child can recognize that it belongs to the same category of problems. What do I mean by values ? there are a number of problems where in the end, the value is zero, or the value is the same, or the value is a multiple of another value. Each of these value patterns requires a different way of processing the information.
This is an inefficient way of learning, since there are numerous ways that the problem sum can be stated and there are of course, different values in every problem. This is leads to a lot of drilling before a student can amass enough patterns to be effective.
Assessment books encourages this problem solving technique by giving multiple problems with the same value patterns, ie. zero values in the end, or same multiples of some other values, or the familiar unchanged difference, ie. Tom loses 3 units, Mary loses 3 units.
Students are not taught the basic principles of a certain class of problem and how it applies to the that specific class in all it's permutations.
The basic principles are the formulas that must be applied to that class of problem.
ie. In Before - After type of problems, the formula is
Before + Transfer (or Change) = After.
It is a very simple formula, and most students would not even recognize it as a formula, but it is. If the student is able to truly understand the application of this formula, then the student would be free from pattern recognition techniques and would be able to apply first principles to solve all problems, no matter the phrasing or the logic flow or the values.
Take for example the familiar Work Backwards heuristic. It is called Work Backwards because the information to link an unknown variable to a given value, is given right at the end of the question. Does it really matter, if that information is given at the end, at the start or even in the middle of the problem statement? Yes, it does if you're using heuristics. No, it doesn't if you're using first principles, ie. formula approach.
I've developed a technique, Table Heuristics, to solve these issues. It is a holistic framework for solving problems sums based on first principles. A large part of the framework involves problem interpretation, which involves a lot of English language comprehension. There is a visual tool for analysis, and algebra is used in the actual resolution. You'll find that primary school maths is more about English comprehension than Maths.
Why algebra ? because it is abstract enough to provide a single method to solve all problem sums for a given formula. The problem with algebra is that students find it difficult to formulate equations. The conventional way of formulating equations is to mentally process the relationships and values and then write out the final equations on paper. This is a difficult exercise for students starting on algebra.
The Table Heuristics framework has a visual aid to help students formulate the equations. Bit by bit, they build up the equations on paper, not in their minds. This leads to less careless mistakes and a clearer more visual approach to see how relationships are linked.
If you've always wondered if all these different problem sums could be solved with a single consistent approach, then yes, it can be done. Is there an alternative to massive drilling ? yes, there is a more efficient method.
May you share here what exactly is table heuristic? I find it difficult to teach for example in the topic of \"ratio\" to my girl and the best way to get ready to start a new topic is to have full understanding of why we think we need to use ratio and why it is relevant and not others.
:thankyou: