Article Critique

2

Jasmin A. King

1/9/13

EDE 3523

Hurst, C. (2007). Finding the Maths: Helping Students Connect Their

​Mathematial Knowledge to Other Contexts. Australian Primary

​Matheatics Classroom, 12(2), 25-29.

Summary

​The article Finding the Maths: Helping Students Connect Their Mathematical Knowledge to Other Contexts introduces an outstanding strategy for teachers to use in order to aid students in becoming more successful in math. Students should attain more knowledge rather than simply having the ability to use a calculator to solve problems. They should have the skills to comprehend math problems and understand which steps they should take in solving those particular problems. Students should have the ability to ask questions about data and essentially be able to discuss what is on their mind about the data. In this article, two men by the names of Willis and Hogan were able to cultivate a numeracy framework to explain how teachers could contemplate about numeracy. With this framework, they were able to integrate three types of knowledge: Mathematical, Contextual, and Strategic. This is when the “Finding the Maths” strategy was put to the test. This strategy was developed to encourage students to utilize the three types of thinking and help them focus on particular mathematical ideas in the context they chose. The first step was recognizing that math was a part of the context. Next they were asked to describe mathematical ideas that they had. After that, they were asked to pose questions about how the mathematical information was used. Finally, the students used the “Debriefing the Numeracy” strategy at the end of the “Finding the Maths” strategy which concentrated the students thought process on the rooted mathematics in a specific context. This strategy was able to involve the students and excite them about how the math concepts they had prior knowledge of was embedded in the context.

Critique

​I felt that the math strategy that was...