I’m sure students in general are much better at column methods than they were, say, 15 years ago. I wonder if their relative confidence with these procedures makes them less likely/willing to turn to “number line thinking”?
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My nurture y8 group always want to use column methods in preference to anything else. We've just spent a term on the @ncetm.bsky.social Securing Foundations resources, they're starting to understand how to be efficient and use number sense instead
It's tough—I remember back when I'd have classes of Y7s that couldn't do basic arithmetic. So today when almost all can succeed at column methods, that's got be heartening to some extent.
But if, as you're doing, you can get them being more efficient (lazy😉) when possible, that's even better😀
They just get so wedded to the algorithm but don't understand why it works.
I asked them "how many to get from 784 to 1000" and most again wanted to do a nasty subtraction with loads of exchanging! And of course make errors.
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But if, as you're doing, you can get them being more efficient (lazy😉) when possible, that's even better😀
I asked them "how many to get from 784 to 1000" and most again wanted to do a nasty subtraction with loads of exchanging! And of course make errors.