Build Procedural Fluency from Conceptual Understanding

Room to Grow - a Math Podcast

In this episode of Room to Grow, Joanie and Curtis continue the season 5 series on the Mathematics Teaching Practices from NCTM’s Principles to Actions, celebrating it’s 10th anniversary. This month’s practice is “Build procedural fluency from conceptual understanding.” This is defined as follows:

Effective teaching of mathematics builds fluency with procedures on a foundation of conceptual understanding so that students, over time, become skillful in using procedures flexibly as they solve contextual and mathematical problems.

Using some discussion about multiplication, our hosts try to differentiate what is meant by conceptual understanding and by procedural fluency. They tease out the confusion that can arise by associating conceptual understanding with inquiry-based instruction and procedural fluency with direct instructional strategies. Although these types of instruction often go together, they are different, and separating them can help educators focus on how to best get to student learning.

Additional referenced content includes:

· NCTM’s Principles to Actions

· NCTM’s Taking Action series for grades K-5, grades 6-8, and grades 9-12

· NCTM’s position paper on Procedural Fluency (January 2023 – membership not necessary)

Did you enjoy this episode of Room to Grow? Please leave a review and share the episode with others. Share your feedback, comments, and suggestions for future episode topics by emailing [email protected] . Be sure to connect with your hosts on X and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy.