End of Term 2 - I'm now 2 terms into my inquiry, and have just presented to a group of teachers in my school an update on where I am on my journey.
Reflecting on where I am now, I've had to remember that my inquiry is on "Developing independent tasks that require higher order thinking to increase cognitive engagement in maths", and not simply creating a maths problem-solving presentation (which has been quite a large focus in my inquiry thus far).
One thing I realised/ noticed was the with the big focus I was putting onto these presentations, my learners stopped caring about the rest of their follow-up activities. My learners stopped caring about their Maths whizz and their xtramath. While my inquiry idea stemmed from moving away from just relying on programmes like these, I did not intend to get rid of or replace them entirely.
Because of this I've decided to put the focus back onto these programmes (while still keeping my presentations). I have done this in a multiple of ways and have explained in detail in a previous blog post. But since these changes I've now seen my learners dedicated to both their mathswhizz and xtramath programmes, as well as getting their problem solving presentations on their blog.
Next term, I intend to adapt my maths presentations further again. While keeping an eye on how their other activities are going. I need to be careful that I don't substitute basic facts learning for problem solving practice, rather run them alongside each other.
Reflecting on where I am now, I've had to remember that my inquiry is on "Developing independent tasks that require higher order thinking to increase cognitive engagement in maths", and not simply creating a maths problem-solving presentation (which has been quite a large focus in my inquiry thus far).
One thing I realised/ noticed was the with the big focus I was putting onto these presentations, my learners stopped caring about the rest of their follow-up activities. My learners stopped caring about their Maths whizz and their xtramath. While my inquiry idea stemmed from moving away from just relying on programmes like these, I did not intend to get rid of or replace them entirely.
Because of this I've decided to put the focus back onto these programmes (while still keeping my presentations). I have done this in a multiple of ways and have explained in detail in a previous blog post. But since these changes I've now seen my learners dedicated to both their mathswhizz and xtramath programmes, as well as getting their problem solving presentations on their blog.
Next term, I intend to adapt my maths presentations further again. While keeping an eye on how their other activities are going. I need to be careful that I don't substitute basic facts learning for problem solving practice, rather run them alongside each other.
Do this and you will be scary! How will the media be able to complain about primary school maths teachers? Great post.
ReplyDeleteAm hoping to borrow some of your ideas in term 3 Matt and get my guys doing more problem solving and showing their thinking via Explain Everything and posting these on their blogs.
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