I was wondering how many of you conduct math interviews with your students. Marilyn Burns is a mathematics educator and the author of over a dozen children's books on mathematics. She claims that interviewing students helps us to understand how they reason. In a blog, there is an audio interview (click here) about midway down the page. Would interviewing our students as Marilyn suggests help us in adult education? What are your takeaways and thoughts?
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When she had a 'math reasoning inventory' online I used that some times (it's evolved into the interviews). Yes, it was eye-opening that basically *all* the students I met with, f'rinstance, when presented w/ "can you subtract 1000 -3 in your head" air-wrote the problem borrowing and all. I wonder if in the "interview" version, she stops and talks about counting up ;) I know I wanted to!!!!