Susan Gehn

Susan Gehn, a first-grade teacher in Cottage Grove, Wisconsin, talks about why she uses modeling and problem-solving activities in her mathematics curriculum rather than the memorization of facts. Excerpted from the video series Schools That Work: The Research Advantage, videoconference #2, Children as Problem Solvers (NCREL, 1991).

"The goals of my math program are for all the children first of all to feel they are confident about math and to enjoy math, those are the primary goals. Of course, I also want them to be good problem solvers. I give them many opportunities for modeling problems, and I see the children grow from a modeling stage to doing a lot of mental math, learning their facts, and I don't promote the drill of math facts, I promote the understanding of mathematical concepts."

Date posted: 1995