The Psychology of ArithmeticThorndike, Edward L. (Edward Lee)
Science
The Psychology of Arithmetic
Thorndike, Edward L. (Edward Lee)
Arithmetic -- Study and teaching
The entire matter of long multiplication with integers and United States
money should be treated as a teaching unit and the bonds formed in close
organization, even though numbers as large as 900,000 are occasionally
involved. The reason is not that it is more logical, or less scrappy,
but that each of the bonds in question thus gets much help from, and
gives much help to, the others.
In sharp contrast to a topic like 'long multiplication' stands a topic
like denominate numbers. It most certainly should not be treated as a
large teaching unit, and all the bonds involved in adding, subtracting,
multiplying, and dividing with all the ordinary sorts of measures should
certainly not be formed in close sequence. The reductions ascending and
descending for many of the measures should be taught as drills on the
appropriate multiplication and division tables. The reduction of feet
and inches to inches, yards and feet to yards, gallons and quarts to
quarts, and the like are admirable exercises in connection with the
(_a_ × _b_) + _c_ = .... problems,--the 'Bought 3 lbs. of sugar at
7 cents and 5 cents worth of matches' problems. The reductions of
inches to feet and inches and the like are admirable exercises in
the _d_ = (.... × _b_) + _c_ or 'making change' problem, which in its
small-number forms is an excellent preparatory step for short division.
They are also of great service in early work with fractions. The
feet-mile, square-foot-square-inch, and other simple relations give a
genuine and intelligible demand for multiplication with large numbers.
Knowledge of the metric system for linear and square measure would
perhaps, as an introduction to decimal fractions, more than save the
time spent to learn it. It would even perhaps be worth while to invent a
measure (call it the _twoqua_) midway between the quart and gallon and
teach carrying in addition and borrowing in subtraction by teaching
first the addition and subtraction of 'gallon, twoqua, quart, and pint'
series! Many of the bonds which a system-made tradition huddled together
uselessly in a chapter on denominate numbers should thus be formed as
helpful preparations for and applications of other bonds all the way
from the first to the eighth half-year of instruction in arithmetic.
The bonds involved in the ability to respond correctly to the series:--
5 = .... 2s and .... remainder
5 = .... 3s and .... remainder
88 = .... 9s and .... remainder
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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