Common Core → Common Competencies
Our 10-year-old frequently bemoans Common Core mathematics. To be honest, I’m not sure she ever really experienced mathematics education that wasn’t Common Core, having started kindergarten in 2012, but she has absorbed from others ahead of her (probably on the bus, the vehicle of all evil) that Common Core is “harder” than the “old math.”
My child who once reveled in addition and subtraction, staying up past bedtime to do math problems, now “hates” math. Math homework is often met with complaints and fair questions such as “But why do we have to do it this way?” and and “Why can’t I just memorize the answers?” As someone who was not educated with Common Core principles, I must admit, I wondered the same thing.
What fresh hell is this new math with its focus on decomposing and recomposing?
The incessant emphasis on reasonableness?
The endless “chunking” of groups of numbers?
After my initial trepidation of learning a new form of math at 33, I began to see that Common Core is based on applying critical thinking instead of rote memorization. That I can appreciate. Now, lest you get too excited, explaining this to a fifth grader in the throes of a meltdown because she can’t solve a word problem still won’t get you very far.
Last night, my daughter and I were in the final stretch of a six hour drive from visiting family in another state. Having finished our audiobook and steadily going out of my mind listening to KidZ Bop, I began to channel surf and stumbled upon a SiriusXm station, Doctor Radio. The show was hosted by NYU’s Langone Health and the topic was Common Core Math. The guest was Dr. Mahesh Sharma of the Center of Teaching/Learning of Mathematics. The interview was fascinating! And by this I mean that I probably still would have listened even if I weren’t stuck in a car, in the rain, on the stretch between Danville and Urbana, IL, at 9:30pm at night.
Dr. Sharma explained that Common Core began as a way to keep the US on par with the rest of the world when it comes to mathematics. He shared that Common Core is an attempt to teach mathematics as a language. As a way to think critically. He demystified Common Core by breaking it down into fundamental skills that can be applied from kindergarten to college and beyond. He provided examples of math games to help children learn patterns, properties, spacial understanding — games like Simon Says, Battleship, and Connect4. My daughter, who “hates math”, asked me for Connect4 this morning, so we can work on patterns and spacial understanding. Score 1 for Dr. Sharma!
One of the most interesting concepts Sharma shared in the interview was his theory that what was wrong with the approach for teaching “old math” was the focus on the procedure and getting the right answer. Instead, he says we should focus on:
Common language
Common schema
Common procedures
Those three steps resonated with me. So much that I broke one of my mother’s inviolable laws and wrote them on my body with semi-permanent pen.
In my work as a Salesforce consultant, we — and those we are serving — often want to jump right to procedures.
How can we run our annual giving Campaign in Salesforce?
How can we use Pardot to run drip Campaigns?
How can I get an up-to-date list of Contacts who live in a certain zip code?
How can I use MailChimp to send this eBlast right now?
I get it. Really, I do.
Salesforce can do all the things and we, as Salesforce professionals and #AwesomeAdmins, want to do all want to do all the things Salesforce — and now, dang it! But without first establishing a language and a schema, jumping right to the procedure can lead to us establishing muscle memory without knowing why or thinking critically about what we are doing.
As a consultant who takes stewardship of my clients’ budget seriously, I never want to spend time on things they already know or can easily find out via Google, so the temptation is great to cut to the chase and dive right in to procedure. But when someone later questions if there is a more efficient, or more efficacious, way of doing things, if my clients do not know the language and the schema behind the procedures, they will be at a disadvantage — which will likely wind up costing more money in the long run!
Approaching Salesforce learning within organizations by establishing a common core in language, schema, and then procedures will go a long way to establish both deep and broad competencies.
A common core leads to common competencies.
But, I’ve gotta say, there’s still a soft spot in my heart for mnemonic devices. After all, I can sing the quadratic formula to the tune of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” with the best of them.
