Mathematics
TN Mathematics Standards - Overview
Tennessee students have various mathematical needs that their K-12 education should address. All students should be able to recall and use their math education when the need arises. That is, a student should know certain math facts and concepts such as the multiplication table, how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide basic numbers, how to work with simple fractions and percentages, etc. There is a level of procedural fluency that a student’s K-12 math education should provide him or her along with conceptual understanding so that this can be recalled and used throughout his or her life. Students also need to be able to reason mathematically. This includes problem solving skills in work and non-work related settings and the ability to critically evaluate the reasoning of others. A student’s K-12 math education should also prepare him or her to be free to pursue post-secondary education opportunities. Students should be able to pursue whatever career choice, and its post-secondary education requirements, that they desire. To this end, the K-12 math standards lay the foundation that allows any student to continue further in college, technical school, or with any other post-secondary educational needs.
A college and career ready math class is one that addresses all of the needs listed above. The standards’ role is to define what our students should know, understand, and be able to do mathematically so as to fulfill these needs. To that end, the standards address conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application.
Conceptual Understanding, Procedural Fluency, and Application
In order for our students to be mathematically proficient, the standards focus on a balanced development of conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application. Through this balance, students gain understanding and critical thinking skills that are necessary to be truly college and career ready.
In order for our students to be mathematically proficient, the standards focus on a balanced development of conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application. Through this balance, students gain understanding and critical thinking skills that are necessary to be truly college and career ready.
Conceptual understanding refers to understanding mathematical concepts, operations, and relations. It is more than knowing isolated facts and methods. Students should be able to make sense of why a mathematical idea is important and the kinds of contexts in which it is useful. It also allows students to connect prior knowledge to new ideas and concepts.
Procedural fluency is the ability to apply procedures accurately, efficiently, and flexibly. One cannot stop with memorization of facts and procedures alone. It is about recognizing when one strategy or procedure is more appropriate to apply than another. Students need opportunities to justify both informal strategies and commonly used procedures through distributed practice. Procedural fluency includes computational fluency with the four arithmetic operations. In the early grades, students are expected to develop fluency with whole numbers in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Therefore, computational fluency expectations are addressed throughout the standards. Procedural fluency extends students’ computational fluency and applies in all strands of mathematics. It builds from initial exploration and discussion of number concepts to using informal strategies and the properties of operations to develop general methods for solving problems (NCTM, 2014).
Procedural fluency is the ability to apply procedures accurately, efficiently, and flexibly. One cannot stop with memorization of facts and procedures alone. It is about recognizing when one strategy or procedure is more appropriate to apply than another. Students need opportunities to justify both informal strategies and commonly used procedures through distributed practice. Procedural fluency includes computational fluency with the four arithmetic operations. In the early grades, students are expected to develop fluency with whole numbers in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Therefore, computational fluency expectations are addressed throughout the standards. Procedural fluency extends students’ computational fluency and applies in all strands of mathematics. It builds from initial exploration and discussion of number concepts to using informal strategies and the properties of operations to develop general methods for solving problems (NCTM, 2014).
Application provides a valuable context for learning and the opportunity to practice skills in a relevant and a meaningful way. As early as Kindergarten, students are solving simple “word problems” with meaningful contexts. In fact, it is in solving word problems that students are building a repertoire of procedures for computation. They learn to select an efficient strategy and determine whether the solution(s) makes sense. Problem solving provides an important context in which students learn about numbers and other mathematical topics by reasoning and developing critical thinking skills (Adding It Up, 2001).