Article claims Anna Stokke is “expert in math education”. Debatable. As she has posted frequently, she is a mathematician, and makes a clear distinction between math education and mathematics. Be curious about who is positioned as an “expert” and why.

@mathillustrated She's spent a decade plus working to change K-12 math education, hosts a popular podcast on it, and researched and written extensively on it. She was already an expert on mathematics. I think it's clear she's an expert on math education.

@ToddTruitt76508 @mathillustrated That....would not make anyone an expert on math education. It would *definitely* not make anyone an expert on actually teaching math in k-12, particularly high school.

@Ed_Realist @ToddTruitt76508 Inexperience on display

Incredible. “This is a must-read piece by @greg_ashman on "conceptual understanding"-the goal everyone claims but can't really define or measure. My definition: it's the thing students supposedly gain when taught using certain methods (e.g., inquiry, multiple strategies, productive struggle) that are otherwise ineffective. That's why arguments about it go nowhere. The term is defined to be the outcome of a preferred teaching method so you're not debating evidence, you're debating something that's essentially defined to be the thing that everyone should want.”

@Ed_Realist @ToddTruitt76508 @greg_ashman Stunning deflections

@mathillustrated @Ed_Realist @greg_ashman What is your definition?

@ToddTruitt76508 @Ed_Realist @greg_ashman Concepts are difficult to pin down. “I was reminded of my long struggle as a student, trying to attach meaning to 'group', rather than just a collection of symbols, words, definitions, theorems and proofs that I read in a textbook.”

@ToddTruitt76508 @Ed_Realist @greg_ashman “I do think that paying more attention than current custom to how you and others are really thinking, to the intuitions, is helpful both in proving theorems and in explaining mathematics.”

@ToddTruitt76508 @Ed_Realist @greg_ashman #38882" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">mathoverflow.net/questions/3863…

@ToddTruitt76508 @Ed_Realist @greg_ashman Also arxiv.org/pdf/math/94042…

@ToddTruitt76508 @Ed_Realist @greg_ashman “People have very different ways of understanding particular pieces of mathematics”

@mathillustrated @Ed_Realist @greg_ashman So what is your definition? A point made by @greg_ashman was about how conceptual understanding evangelists never seem to have a definitive definition (and when they do, it somehow never is measurable w/ a standardized assessment).

@ToddTruitt76508 @mathillustrated @Ed_Realist @greg_ashman I am not at all convinced you would understand it.

@petergates3 @ToddTruitt76508 @mathillustrated @greg_ashman Well, he might be able to repeat it by rote but he wouldn't understand what it meant.

@Ed_Realist @ToddTruitt76508 @mathillustrated @greg_ashman Tweet of the day