Well, this is something that teachers in our school drum into the students from 1st grade. A substantial portion of our standardized state testing as well as district testing require constructed responses. I am not sure whether it is even possible to score more than just proficient on the state exam without crafting constructed responses. As a result, the classwork and tests always include long and brief constructed responses and for good measure, the students are told to show work on multiple choice answers as well. At times, it is rather a bit of an overkill. If the student doesn't care about doing well on the state/district testing or getting good grades, then there is little incentive to comply. My children generally went along as required by their teachers although there have been a few occasions when I had to issue a challenge borrowed from one of their highly regarded GT teachers who believes that if you can't explain to someone else how you arrived at your answer, then you have not acquired a deep enough understanding of the concept. Fortunately, this same teacher also believes in many ways to arrive at the same answer.
Last edited by Quantum2003; 02/21/14 01:33 PM.
