Baroody's Three Stages

Baroody believes that children progress through three phases when mastering facts. Baroody’s first phase is counting strategies. He describes this phase as including objects or verbal counting to derive an answer. One example would be students using their fingers to help keep track of their counts to solve 8+5. Baroody’s second phase is reasoning strategies. Students use reasoning strategies to derive answers based on known facts and relationships. For example, a student trying to solve 8+5 by thinking, “Five plus five equals ten, and three more will make thirteen.” Baroody’s final phase is mastery. Students will have efficient production of answers. For example, when the teacher asks a student, “What is 8+5?” A student might answer “thirteen”