Math Wars - Advocates of Reform

Advocates of Reform

The largest supporter of reform in the US has been the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

One aspect of the debate is over how explicitly children must be taught skills based on formulas or algorithms (fixed, step-by-step procedures for solving math problems) versus a more inquiry-based approach in which students are exposed to real-world problems that help them develop fluency in number sense, reasoning, and problem-solving skills. In this latter approach, conceptual understanding is a primary goal and algorithmic fluency is expected to follow secondarily.

A considerable body of research by mathematics educators has generally supported reform mathematics and has shown that children who focus on developing a deep conceptual understanding (rather than spending most of their time drilling algorithms) develop both fluency in calculations and conceptual understanding. Advocates explain failures not because the method is at fault, but because these educational methods require a great deal of expertise and have not always been implemented well in actual classrooms.

A backlash which advocates call "poorly understood reform efforts" and critics call "a complete abandonment of instruction in basic mathematics" resulted in "math wars" between reform and traditional methods of mathematics education.