When the problems haven’t been sufficiently explained or don’t have clear processes to solve them, my student would guess and check which turned into guess and check learning. Because he had no understanding of the context of the new math concept, he would become frustrated at the point of the problems and the examples. Her frustration was very detrimental to her learning and love of math!įor the student who is learning the content for the first time without background knowledgeĪnother student was using Khan Academy as his first way of learning the material.

The computer just didn’t understand what she was writing. She then would get devastated about how she couldn’t do the math correctly. This happened with nearly every new type of problem she attempted. The problem was that she was putting the answer incorrectly into the interface. She would work really hard, do everything correctly, and submit the answer.

One of my students had to do an online program with lots of math problems to test her understanding. Teacher corrections on problems are very important plus understanding how to attempt new problems is critical. Most of my students have major issues with Khan Academy because they don’t get useful feedback when doing the generated problems in the software. Why Khan Academy Doesn’t Work for All Learners:įor the student who doesn’t understand why they got the question wrong (because actually, they didn’t) I will tell you the positives after I explain the pitfalls of this platform: Khan Academy was really the first to empower online learning. I always tell them, “For a free teacher, it is amazing! But, you get what you pay for.” Most of my students have major issues with online learning in general.

Khan academy elementary math