Error Patterns in Computation: Using Error Patterns to Help Each Student Learn - Softcover

Error Patterns in Computation:  Using Error Patterns to Help Each Student Learn, Tenth Edition

Robert B. Ashlock, Covenant College

The only text of its kind to show teachers how to identify common error patterns in mathematics! 

As students learn about mathematical operations and methods of computation, they may adopt erroneous procedures and misconceptions.  This engaging book was written to model how the instructor can make thoughtful analyses of their students’ work and in so doing, discover patterns in errors made.  This supplementary text guides teachers to consider reasons why students may have learned erroneous procedures in the first place and presents strategies for helping those students.  Readers come away from the book with a clear vision of how to use student error patterns to gain more specific knowledge of students' understanding and to use that information to inform their future instruction. 

In addition to being substantially revised, the new edition offers greater emphasis on the following important topics:

• Use of diagnosis as a part of formative assessment, including open-ended assessment and problem writing as examples
• Application of Big Ideas--including compensation principles, relations between operations, and “There are many names for a number”--to form connections among facts, procedures, and concepts by applying big ideas
• Distinction between misconceptions and error patterns in computation
• Understanding of our system of numeration
• Understanding the meanings of operations of arithmetic so students will know when to use each operation when solving problems
• Representation of concepts and procedures in a variety of ways
• Use of classroom discourse, careful listening, and probing questions
• Assessment of dispositions
• Planning for varied instruction

Robert Ashlock began his career in 1957 as a fourth and fifth grade teacher with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education. He later received a master’s degree in elementary school administration from Butler University and a doctorate in elementary education from Indiana University. He became a graduate assistant and teaching associate at Indiana University in 1964 and went on to teach at several institutions including the University of Maryland, Reformed Theological Seminary, Belhaven College, and finally, Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia.  Ashlock came to Covenant in 1988 to fill the need for a specialist in elementary education who could also teach on the graduate level.  He directed the Master of Education Program, taught both undergraduate and graduate education courses, and coordinated the process necessary for the teacher education program to be approved by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission.