Chapter 6 Discussion Prompt

On p. 104-105, the authors point out that, "... concepts are the results of cognitive processes and not the other way around. Working with diagrams facilitates important cognitive processes." It's so important that students at all levels build conceptual understanding through big ideas such as those outlined in this section. I find, however, that a fair number of students seem to lack confidence in working with visual representations, whether it be an open number line, bar model drawing, or their own diagrams. To what extent do you see this in your students? How could we be more intentional about building persistence, confidence, and accuracy with visual representations to develop those all-important big ideas?