To time or not to time

Our popular paper Fluency without Fear: https://www.youcubed. org/evidence/fluency-without-fear/ not only describes the ways anxiety from speed impacts the brain, impeding its ability to function, but also shares ways to teach maths facts through activities students will enjoy and that lead to deep understanding. Other suggestions are: 1. Tell students you don’t value fast work, instead you value creative representations of ideas. Mathematical thinking is about depth not speed. 2. Don’t let mathematical discussions be driven by the fastest students. 3. When asking for hands up, don’t always take answers from the first students who raise their hand, that gives all students the message that what you value is speed. 4. Don’t use flash cards, speed competitions, timed tests, instead value depth, creativity, different ways of thinking about maths,