CDMS encourages students to try different approaches in problem solving in order to gain deeper understanding. As I used CDMS more and more, students got better at discussion and were more willing to jump in — it takes courage to make a contribution! This approach encourages students to work towards refining their explanations so that solutions are better understood. It also pushes students to critically examine each other’s explanations and to give more attention to clarity in their explanations. As students share their insights/ideas in processing a problem, they gain more perspective, more options, and a sense of contributing to at least some stage of the solution.

— PC, high school math teacher in Massachusetts

CDMS built the skill of discussion in my classroom. Students need to be able to discuss with one another and they are more willing to collaborate because they are used to talking to one another. As I used CDMS, students became more flexible in their thinking. Students became more willing to disagree and could express disagreement better. They also could ask for clarification better because they had more practice saying “I understand it up until x, but at y I don’t understand.” They were also more comfortable with the idea that there were multiple ways to get to a correct answer.

— RC, 8th grade math teacher in Massachusetts