Why are there so few worked examples in CMP texts?
^ Back to Top ^ The overarching goal in CMP is for students to make sense of and take ownership of mathematical concepts. The student role of formulating, representing, clarifying, communicating, and reflecting on ideas leads to an increase in learning. If the format of the texts included many worked examples, the student role would then become merely reproducing these examples with small modifications. This would have the effect of having students become fluent at a particular skill, or with a particular strategy, but would work against having students develop the independent reasoning skills that can be applied flexibly in new situations. This is not to say that worked examples are not valued at CMP; but the “work” in these examples is done by students, independently, in groups, or with the help of the teacher, and is captured in notebooks, to be referred to whenever needed.
