Iowa Core Curriculum - ....Ability to Recognize, Make, and Apply Connections

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Home

Mathematics

Essential Skills

Ability to Recognize, Make, & Apply Connections

All students should be able to:

Recognize and use connections among mathematical ideas
Understand how mathematical ideas interconnect and build on one another to produce a coherent whole
Recognize and apply mathematics in contexts outside of mathematics

When students are able to see the connections across different mathematical content areas, they develop a view of mathematics as an integrated whole. As students build on their previous mathematical understandings while learning new concepts, students become increasingly aware of the connections among various mathematical topics. This focus on connections while learning mathematics develops students' ability to recognize, make, and apply connections more generally. (Adapted from NCTM, 2000)

Implications for Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment
"As the Learning Principle [in NCTM's Principles and Standards] emphasizes, understanding involves making connections" (NCTM 2000, p. 64). A connected and coherent mathematics curriculum helps students make connections across the strands of mathematics. Problem-based instructional tasks provide connections to other disciplines and to the real world. Instruction should emphasize important mathematics across and within the disciplines. Educators should pose questions that encourage students to make connections, including connections to their previous mathematical knowledge.