My son, now 11, learned to show his work during a mini-stint of afterschooling during the 4th grade when I introduced him to Aleks online math.
They insist that one get three examples of each type of problem correct to 'earn' a 'piece of pie' on this cute pie chart. Until that time he had no interest in checking or showing his work. What he quickly discovered, was that if he showed his work, he could check his work, and if he checked his work, he could get the magic '3 correct right away' that would save him from endless drill, since the compter 'obviously' doesn't know the difference beteen a mistake in understanding and a math error.
I think it helped that he knew he was dealing with a machine that 'has to follow a program' instead of a real human teacher who might be expected or at least hopped to figure out 'why he got the wrong answer.'
I was so pleased with his change in attitude. No one had to 'talk to him' about showing his work once the situation was set up in such a way that 'there was something in it for him.'
Smiles,
Grinity
