Teacher says dc can’t use ‘more advanced’ answers

[Purplyoctopus]

dc is in year 7 & is being marked down for putting ‘extra’ information on their schoolwork where their previous (very academic) school taught them beyond the ks2 curriculum they know how to answer questions in a more advanced manner than what is expected at year 7.

This is especially a problem in maths where dc will use a more complicated way to answer a question because it’s faster and still correct.

But teacher wants them to put all of their workings and use the more basic methods they teach in year 7 to find the same answer and has explained that one day dc will indeed be answering these questions in the way they are already doing them but not until later in secondary school. I find this so so daft. Aibu to say carry on as you are to dc as they need to know it for future anyway or am I missing something?!

Play the game, jump the hoop. That is also a skill.

Putting all workings is reasonable and will be required for exams.

Potentially showing they can do the more 'basic' method may be reasonable to show they have it in their toolbox.

What is the topic?

In other subjects you only get marks for what the question asks, not for extraneous info, however interesting.

I despair of the way they teach maths these days, I really do.

That’s crap teacher. Basically it’s teaching “don’t you dare to be different/better”

Learning to meet scoring criteria is a skill.

Particularly relevant for employment in later life. Learning it as part of maths aged 12 is still learning life skills.

If your child is frustrated then they can do it both ways.

YABU. I'm not a maths teacher, but it's common knowledge that you need to show your workings. You can get marks for your workings even if the final answer is wrong. My ds is doing A Level maths and was told at parents' evening that he needs to be more detailed and show every stage if his workings. The teacher knows best about how questions are supposed to be answered at each stage of the curriculum. Your ds needs to do his work as he's been asked to do it!

The maths teacher probably doesn't understand it lol 😂

Especially in maths, it's important to know all the ways to do something, and be able to demonstrate that.

Sure, you can solve a quadratic using the formula, and it's quick and easy, but you also need to be able to do it by factorising and completing the square, as these techniques are important for other areas.

Ditto all sorts of other mathematical techniques.

Your child needs to prove to the teacher that they know the basics inside out before they move onto other methods, that's how they make sure she does know the maths, not that she can just parrot formulae or use Kumon or whatever the current fashion is in extremely narrow circumstances

My eldest is very good at mental arithmetic, and would skip steps when he started doing algebra because to him it was obvious and he'd just do it in his head.

But I emphasised to him that he mustn't do that, he had to show his workings because that way even if he did make a mistake, the teacher would be able to give him marks for going about it the right way, even if the answer was wrong.

Maths is as much about thinking about things as it is getting the right answer, especially in secondary school

There's a few different parts to this.

Firstly, show the workings. Yes, always, whichever method he uses.

Second issue is about the method. If the question is just 'solve this' and doesn't specify the method then it seems unreasonable for the pupil to be expected to use a slower one. He's answering the question.

However if it says 'solve this using <basic method> then that's what he should do.

I guess now the teacher has told him to use the basic method in this case then he should do so but I tend to agree it seems a bit daft. The teacher should have clarified not just marked him down (apart from the 'show your workings' aspect)

I may have not been clear in my OP, dc has been taught to show working but is being downgraded for using working that are more advanced. Mainly in maths. They are showing working but they aren’t the ones taught in year 7, they are more advanced.

In maths sometimes there are easy methods to do particular things which can be used without understanding. These are fine up to a point but then can be difficult to develop on the basic understanding. For example I can integrate things “by parts”, if the equation is amenable, using a rote method I learned at school. At university I had to unlearn that somewhat because they didn’t conveniently always give things that could be done that way.

Sometimes you have to use the method shown, even if you can do it another way.

Some math techniques are foundations for other techniques later. So even if you know how to solve a problem in a more efficient manner, learning the technique at hand is useful because it is about developing the skill to use the next time it comes around in a more complicated way.

Ive been serving as DD’s tutor for years now and it’s become very obvious to me how this pattern plays out. I didn’t catch it as a student my first time through. The skill building and how it all fits together when you see the big picture is beautiful.

Why can’t he just use the ones taught in Year 7? Being able to follow simple instructions is also a skill.

It's not the teacher, it's the maths curriculum.

The GCSE maths paper will require pupils to show a range of ways to solve problems, so children need to use the right method for the right question.

If your DS uses the alternative method, he might not get the marks. The examiner might not credit his alternative workings.

Learning to do exactly as you've been asked is also a useful skill.
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@Ponderingwindow i think our problem is more that dc has done the full learning so now uses the more advance technique. They can do the basic technique but can’t understand why they’re ’going backwards’ in their maths learning. They can do the basic technique but prefer the more efficient workings as they’re faster (and they love maths so just do it that way)

It doesn't really matter, though.

Doing as you're told and using the method you've been taught is just as much a skill as using a more advanced technique. They've been told what the teacher wants so they need to go along with that.

Is it white rose?

Maths you need to show you can do each part of the equation and it can get you marks for your working

You have to answer what it's actually asking (show us what X means using this method) than answering the equation

If she keeps just doing it the "wrong" way then she might well fail Maths even though she's good at it

In Maths it is also possible to do things the hard way, with workings, when the easy way will suffice, without understanding.

Eg the reason factorising gives you the roots of a quadratic is self evident. Later in school we are taught the more impressive looking Quadratic Formula. The big advantages of the QF are that it will always work and it can be executed by rote.

But why are the resulting numbers the roots of the quadratic you started with? Not so transparent. And you need an appreciation of complex numbers to do this right.

Factorisation, the easy way, has some big advantages.

This theme is ubiquitous throughout the subject.

Would it help if he reframed the questions as not “get the right answer” but “demonstrate you can use x method”?

But if the question asks them to demonstrate they can do the question using x method, they don't get marks for doing it using y method. It's sometimes harder to answer a question using a more "back to basics" method than it is using the "advanced" method as you have to show better understanding. If your child doesn't understand the basic method (which is what is being assessed), then they might be left floundering when it's built on for harder concepts.