Time Writing - Relational and Instrumental Thinking

Relational and instrumental understandings are two techniques which can be used when teaching students in all subjects. I think both methods could have benefits and should be collaborated in teaching. Relational understanding is making connections between concepts and learning through connections. This technique can be applied to math in that it allows the student to learn and transfer previous knowledge to a new subject. Instrumental understanding is using algorithmic thinking to understand and compute problems. Instrumental understanding is more direct and to the point, using algorithms to solve specific problems. To use this technique we can implement specific rules and tips in order to make understanding easier, an example of this is using acronyms to help remind us of mathematical rules.