Math and Productive Failure

Mental Calculation, Mathematics, and Puzzles
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The best way to learn math is to learn how to fail productively

Singapore, the land of many math geniuses, may have discovered the secret to learning mathematics (pdf). It employs a teaching method called productive failure (pdf), pioneered by Manu Kapur, head of the Learning Sciences Lab at the National Institute of Education of Singapore.

Students who are presented with unfamiliar concepts, asked to work through them, and then taught the solution significantly outperform those who are taught through formal instruction and problem-solving. The approach is both utterly intuitiveā€”we learn from mistakesā€”and completely counter-intuitive: letting kids flail around with unfamiliar math concepts seems both inefficient and potentially damaging to their confidence.

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wow, thatā€™s really interesting, thanks :slight_smile:

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I like the concept: get people to think creatively. :slight_smile:

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I was speaking to my wife on this and her Father was a maths teacher. She said he often posed maths problems to them but never gave them the solution or the answer. Also, in Japanese manufacturing systems (Lean systems) they use a teaching system called Kata. A saying they have is ā€˜giving the answer kills learningā€™.