Description

Smarter Than We Think is a must-read for parents, teachers, policy makers, or anyone who cares about the mathematical education of the next generation. Seeley tackles common misconceptions about students, and she challenges teachers and teacher educators to engage students by turning their classrooms "upside-down" and to rethink what "everyone knows" about teaching mathematics. She exhorts policy makers to put mathematics first and uses this as the guiding principle in making choices about technology in the classroom, restructuring curriculum, and high-stakes testing. Finally, in a set of essays on the mathematical practices in the Common Core State Standards, Seeley reminds us that it is not simply mathematical content that we want students to master. Rather, we should also seek to instill in our students the essential habits of mind that are the hallmark of mathematical thinking, arguably the essential skill for thriving in the twenty-first century.