Richard Skemp describes instrumental understanding as 'rules without reason'. When he was giving such examples in math, it made me think of my time as a student in high school. I remember learning trigonometric identities and using them to solve problems, but I didn't understand what they truly meant. I did not understand where they came from and why we used them, I only understood how to apply them. This is the main difference between what Skemp describes as relational vs. instrumental understanding. Relational understanding answers why, whereas instrumental only answers how . Skemp tells us of these mathematical mis-matches, where the student's goal is to understand instrumentally, while being taught by a teacher wants them to understand relationally. Up until grade 10, I was one of these students who only had a instrumental understanding of mathematics. I had an amazing teacher who taught us in this relational way of understanding. This teacher ...
Thanks Hugo— sounds good.
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