Mathematical Practices

Mathematical Practices are specific processes, proficiencies, behaviors, and reasoning skills students need to engage in as they learn and practice math skills and concepts and solve problems. The practices are universal - they apply to all students at all grade levels, but the way they are used increases with depth and complexity as students progress through the grade levels. In essence, these practices describe how mathematicians work.

Here are the Mathematical Practices from the Colorado Mathematics Academic Standards:

1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
   
3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
   
4. Model with mathematics.
   
5. Use appropriate tools strategically.
   
6. Attend to precision.
   
7. Look for and make use of structure. 
   
8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

You can find detailed descriptions of each of these practices here.

Next: 21st Century Skills