In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Brian Poncy to explore a claim you’ve probably heard in schools: “Teaching math facts interferes with understanding.” From there, we dig into better ways to think about math facts, what schools can do differently, and the practical decisions that show up when schools decide to take facts seriously.
🚨 Exciting news! 🚨
Steplab and I are bringing this work to life in person. We’ll be leading a coaching-focused professional development day in New York City on Saturday, January 17, 2026 (8:30 AM–3:30 PM) at FLACS Middle School. 🗽
We’ll dig into the practical mechanics of coaching, rehearsal, and culture-building—no fluff, no theory without application. If this episode resonates with you, you’ll want to be in the room.
👉 Learn more and register here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/steplab1/1878932
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What this episode covers
- The “facts vs. understanding” tension: what that claim is getting at, and why it keeps coming up in schools
- What math facts are expected to do in the bigger picture of math learning (and what they’re not)
- The real-world dilemma: students who are older, behind on earlier facts, and now expected to use multiplication/division in grade-level work
- Different ways schools try to build fact fluency, and the tradeoffs between them
- Practice structures: introductory sets, interleaving, distributed practice, and the practical constraints that shape what teachers actually do
- Fingers in math: when finger use shows up, how it’s viewed, and what teachers often hope students transition toward
- Alternatives to “pure memorization”: using relationships and strategies (like decomposition, make-a-ten, doubles, fact families) as routes into fluency
- How facts get introduced in interventions (not just practiced), and why the introduction piece can be easy to overlook
- Correction and feedback: self-checking, teacher-led correction, and the time-cost vs learning-benefit tradeoff
- Connecting fact instruction to core instruction so the two can reinforce each other instead of competing
- Grouping and placement: homogeneous vs heterogeneous grouping, median-score placement, and the logistics of matching students to the right materials without creating chaos
About Brian Poncy
Dr. Brian Poncy is a professor and program director in school psychology, with a focus on academic intervention and learning principles—especially in mathematics and computation. Check out Facts on Fire here.
Looking for great education books?
The podcast you’re listening to is sponsored by John Catt from Hachette Learning and hosted by Dr. Zach Groshell. John Catt publishes some of the best books in education, including my book, Just Tell Them: The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching.
Interested in coaching that works for every teacher, every time?
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