Preface and introduction

The preface describes the chain of events that led to the creation of the ‘Nix the Tricks’ project. The book has been developed by Tina Cardone, a Public High School Mathematics teacher in Massachusetts, with the active involvement of the online mathematics community. A list of teachers involved with the project is given, that includes both Twitter and blog links.  

The introduction describes the over-arching themes of the book. It provides the background as to why teaching for understanding is preferable to teaching tricks. It also provides answers to common objections such as ‘I don’t have enough time to teach for understanding’ and ‘my students can’t understand higher level maths, but they do great with the trick.’