Boaler: Article Analysis

Boaler (2015) explains at the beginning of the article how an adult was in an interview and one of the questions was, “what is 7 x 8?” The interviewee said 54, but the answer is 56. Boaler begins his article with this scenario to prove a point, which is memorization is not an effective strategy to use for math. The interviewee learned his multiplication facts by memorization which means he lacked number sense. Number sense is when an individual uses numbers with flexibility. When one uses number sense they can think of different strategies to solve a problem instead of memorizing a math fact. Memorization is important but memorizing math facts like multiplication or addition turns into a repetitive activity which can lead to time testing …show more content…
Fluency is part of the math curriculum, and part of the definition is that the teacher is looking for speed and accuracy when solving a problem. Students tend to get nervous about fluency because they believe if they are not fast at math then they aren’t good at it. This is completely wrong as Boaler uses a mathematician as an example. The mathematician was one of the slowest math thinkers when he was younger. Even though he was a slow thinker, he was precise and fluent in his math skills because he would use his number sense to solve a problem. The mathematician example proves that speed is not relevant in math. If an individual can justify and reason their solution, then the teacher will know that they used their number sense to come up with the …show more content…
Boaler proves this point by describing number sense and how it impacts the students learning for math. Number sense is a strategy students can use to solve a problem. They are using logic and reasoning when using number sense. What I really like about number sense is that the students come up with their own strategy. The students are able to think of their own strategy instead of just listening to what the teacher thinks is the correct way to solve the problem. Using number sense in the classroom is a great way to get all the students involved and engaged in math. As Boaler states, many students dislike math. The number one reason is because of memorization. If all teachers would stray away from using memorization as math method or strategy, I think students would enjoy math and would be even more successful at

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