Wasn't it Zen Scanner who said that learning the standard algorithm for long division broke his/her ability to do it all in his/her head?
Ah, yes:
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted.org/BB/ubbthreads.php/topics/159629/Zen_Scanner.html#Post159629What I'd like to see is a teaching method that introduces different ways to get to the result, and then let's kids figure out which one works best
for them (based on their strengths, be they working memory, processing speed, or whatever)
depending on the context.
One thing I liked with the latest set of new stuff Dreambox added for the upper elementary grades was a set of little movies with different methods for doing addition/subtraction (including the standard algorithms) made into super heroes and trying to tackle villainous robot operations in the smallest number of steps.
Not sure they manage to teach the skill, but showing why it might matter is a start...
