My Reflections: Creativity, Flexibility, Adaptivity, and Strategy Use in Mathematics

    The article has discussed very crucial aspects of strategy use in mathematics teaching and learning - creativity, flexibility, and adaptivity. When I was going through the Ferit,s example, I was thinking that it happens with most of us while using  strategies,and wandering why this is so. Although the previous knowledge is crucial for the understanding of the new concepts, but it acquires so much space in our mind and don't let anything new to grab some space there.  Most of us try to follow one direction and find it very hard to look  for some other ways, that is, finding  it hard to adapt to the new conditions, and getting the better ways.

      I strongly admit that the conceptual understanding is the base for the adaptivity, which is not given the due preference in the traditional teaching methods that are based on instrumental understanding,instead of relational understanding. The strategies are therefore developed once the problems are understood properly. I want to share my personal experience. I taught my 5 years old son (who already knew counting 1-100) to add 4and 1, 5and 1 on his fingers, but when I gave him the third question to add 9and1, he answered me without counting on fingers and reflected that I was just asking for one number ahead. This is what Threlfall viewed about use of strategies in arithmetic that strategies are developed, not selected and applied.

      The analysis of the six contributions on the strategy use discussed in the article,is very insightful, and I feel that in order to make our students use the strategies, flexibly, creatively and adaptively, we are needed to change our instructional strategies in teaching mathematics. We must reconsider the role of teacher and the curriculum developers, so as to achieve the objectives of mathematics teaching and learning.