Right Answer?

  Too many of my students entering high school are more concerned with getting the right answer.  The ones I've had for a while are moving from right answer to did they do the problem correctly.  Yes, they want the right answer but they are beginning to look at the whole process rather than only the solution.

The same group believes as long as they get the correct answer, its fine, even if the calculations contained an error.  Their answer is usually "So what!  I got it right."  Even if the calculations is correct but they messed up on one thing in the process but still got the right answer, they still say the same thing.  It doesn't matter if it won't work for any other numbers, they don't care because they got the right answer for the problem.

I think its a mind set they get into in elementary school when the problem is right or wrong.  As far as I know, most of the elementary school teachers do not take time to teach students to find their mistakes.  They focus on teaching process and getting the correct answer.

I've heard of teachers moving away from numerical grades into using a rubric based grading system so its not like 67 percent but rather they are not quite proficient in the topic.  It actually sounds more realistic since it eliminates the "How can I bring my grade up?" question.  The last test I gave, many students got upset because I said they could make corrections but the corrections themselves would not raise their test grade.  Making corrections for the test only allows the students an opportunity to retake a similar test.  They don't want that.

I've spoken with the English teacher who said students only want to write one draft, the final draft, before turning it in.  They don't understand that in both math and English, it can take multiple tries to get a finished product that finished and ready to be read.

Because they are so focused on the correct answer, they are unable to take what they just did and do the next problem without asking "What do I do?" or "How do I solve this one."  Its as if they are totally separate from the problem.  I do get students who manage to put it all together to the point they can do all the problems and can help other students learn it.  But too many never reach the point.

Then if you ask them how they got the answer, they give you the "I did the work." answer.  I realize their is a move to explain how they got the answer but when I was in school, we were told as long as we showed the math we used to arrive at the answer, that explained it all.  If I'd been asked to explain how I got the answer, I would have done it by explaining my work at each step.

Right now, I just work on getting the students to look at the whole problem rather than the answer because its easy to make a calculation  error such as 3 x 2 = 5 and get the wrong answer while having completed the process correctly.

Is there an answer?  I don't know because by the time they get to me in high school, they are convinced getting the right answer is the only thing math focuses on.  Let me know what you think.