Procedural v Conceptual Understanding

 Being that this week we were to take a look at the case studies, I realized that I still did not fully understand the difference between procedural and conceptual knowledge in the context of mathematics. I took the opportunity to learn more about procedural and conceptual knowledge and found some examples that helped me to better understand the difference so that I could complete the case studies to the best of my ability.

Below is a resource that I found to help me to differentiate between the two. 

Procedural refers to the series of steps used to solve the problem whereas conceptual refers to the reasoning as to why operations work the way that they do. 

It is important that math is taught in both contexts. Without procedural knowledge, students will not know the series of steps needed to complete a problem. Without conceptual knowledge, they will not know why they are using those steps and how those steps are meant to help. This means that they will not be able to explain why or how they solved the problem. This also means that they will not be able to apply the concept to other problems or real world situations. 

Procedural example-

multiply 24 by 8

Conceptual example-

Explain the method you used to multiply 24 by 8. Think of another way/method you could use to multiply the two numbers. 

https://teachingmathliteracy.weebly.com/conceptual-vs-procedural-knowledge.html