Raymond, that's great! I would love to see the...

2012-01-08T14:06:22.828-05:00

Raymond, that's great! I would love to see the experiment you describe in your blog carried out. :-)

A secondary thing I would point to is the frequency with which some teachers write problems assuming an operational use of equals, like "3x + 5x = ?" (with no verb or direction). This pops up usually once even at my college's department-written remedial algebra finals. That drives me nuts.

And then, as a result, I get a weaker student in my stats class asking "will you always tell us what to find in a test problem?" (happened last week), as they have the impression that any dump of symbols has an implied action you have to take on them.

Interesting, I had similar thoughts a little while...

2012-01-08T12:14:00.778-05:00

Interesting, I had similar thoughts a little while back: http://blog.mathed.net/2011/09/you-can-press-enter-but-think-twice.html and then later summarized that research (which is more prominent, I believe, than the Texas A&M research you mentioned in a previous post) at http://blog.mathed.net/2011/11/rysk-alibali-et-als-longitudinal.html. I think understanding of equals is something many teachers take for granted, but when misunderstanding rears its ugly head, things can spiral out of control pretty quickly.

Comments on AngryMath: Calculator Equals

Raymond, that's great! I would love to see the...

Interesting, I had similar thoughts a little while...