| This whole thing is hilariously polarizing. People seem to project so much stuff on to what's actually shown on the paper that the arguments don't even make sense a lot of the time - either way. Some things I can get only looking at the paper: The student got a grade of 4/6. There is no evidence from what can be seen on the photo if there are more than two questions or not - however it appears that after #2 there are instructions about showing work, etc. So it's entirely within reason to think that there were only two questions, yet many many people seem to accuse the teacher of being awful for not assigning partial credit. The evidence present on the page is not enough to conclude either way - there are solid arguments and inferences in each direction, yet everyone seems to argue from a "the answer was all right" or "the answer was all wrong" perspective. Similarly - everyone is focusing just on the "learning to multiply whole numbers" aspect of this. But I presume this assignment was given in the course of a broader teaching curriculum. Perhaps the goal is to get the kids to arrange things in a certain way, because it provides a bit of foundational knowledge for next steps. Some next steps where pushing the "3+3+3+3+3" version of this is a "better" representation: * algebraic concepts: 2x becomes x+x, etc. I don't know a way to write 2x in terms of 2+... * fractions: (this is basically the same as above) 4 * 1/2 is 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2, but again I don't know how to write it in terms of 4+ without requiring a bigger transform of first doing the multiplication then switching the sign. * Matricies - here is a case of multiplication that isn't commutative Point being - when teaching sometimes things are left out at first, for the sake of a simple consistent framework to built more concepts upon. Later - those concepts can help to understand additional properties or adjustments to the original facts. It's not required to teach the rules of commutative and associative and so on immediately. Another funny thing about this is everyone just assumes that the paper as shown represents the totality of output from the teacher. It's entirely possible that after the quiz or assignment, the teacher gave a lesson on why this (perhaps common) 'mistake' is wrong. I guess I'm rambling off my original point - but I don't really understand how this entire thing is causing so much vitriol and hate and unfounded speculation - other than a bunch of people projecting their own frustrations with some shitty teachers they had in the past. |