- Do you have an agreed departmental structure?
- Which method is slowest? Which method is quickest?
- Should we teach more than one method? i.e. On first learning, teach cell 3, but then transfer to cell 2?
- Which method extends most naturally to three or more brackets?
- Should cell 2 and cell 4 come with a discussion of the distributive property, or an intermediate step showing this? i.e. (x + 3)(x – 5) = x(x – 5) + 3(x – 5)?
- Additional thinking:
Dan Pearcy 