Seeing Struggling Math Learners as ‘Sense Makers,’ Not ‘Mistake Makers’

In seeing a lot of kids that “hate” math, we need to realize that it’s not really that they hate math so much as they don’t understand it or find it difficult to grasp key concepts. As a teacher and tutor, I see many children who “give up on math” when it could be something as simple as going back to the basics and making sure they have a firm foundation in core understandings. In my teaching years, I’d frequently get kids into my class who had no idea of basic fundamentals they should have learned in two, maybe three or four years prior. Getting these students caught up in after school help or recommending them to tutors is critical for them to move forward and actually enjoy learning again. This is a great article on some other areas that could be holding a student back from performing well in math.

Source: http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/08/04/seeing-struggling-math-learners-as-sense-makers-not-mistake-makers/

In discussions of progressive and constructivist teaching practices, math is often the odd subject out. Teachers and schools that are capable of creating real-world, contextualized, project-based learning activities in every other area of school often struggle to do the same for mathematics, even as prospective employers and universities put more emphasis on its importance.

This struggle may come from a fundamental misunderstanding about the discipline and how it should be taught.

That’s the stance David Wees has arrived at after more than 20 years of teaching at many different kinds of schools all over the world. It has taken a long time, but Wees has stopped labeling student work with the word “mistake” and has started paying attention to what he can learn about how students are thinking, based on the work (right or wrong) they produce.

“I want to know the ways that they are thinking rather than the ways they are making mistakes,” said Wees,

who now works as a formative assessment specialist in mathematics for New Visions for Public Schools, an organization supporting public school teachers in New York City. “My interpretation that they’re making a mistake is a judgment and usually ends my thinking about what they are doing.”

In that situation, it’s extremely tempting to tell the student where he or she went “wrong” and move on. But what does the student learn in that scenario? Not much, beyond how to memorize computational formulas, said Wees.

‘It was clear to me that the mistakes in some cases were a function of the mathematics and the way kids think about the math rather than whether the kid is rich or poor.’David Wees, Formative Assessment Specialist, New Visions for Public Schools

 

“My goal is for them to become the truthmakers,” Wees said. “I’m trying to build a mathematical community where something is true when everyone agrees it’s true.” To do that, he asks students to talk through

mathematical ideas, struggle with them and give one another feedback. “A major goal of math classrooms should be to develop people who look for evidence and try to prove that things are true or not true,” Wees said. “You can do that at any age”

Fundamentally, Wees wants to increase the amount of thinking “at the edge of their knowledge” that students do. “There’s lots of evidence that what we think about is what we know later,” he said. “I want to increase the amount of thinking going on in math class.”

Wees points out that while practice is important, students are repeating an action with which they are at least a little familiar.

He wants students to struggle in the zone of proximal development, where they don’t quite understand yet but aren’t frustrated. When working in New York public schools, Wees found if he gave students problems to solve that allowed for different points of entry, all students could struggle together. One student might be more advanced than another, but if each could access some element of the problem, they discussed it together and either relearned core concepts or were exposed to more advanced ones.

Read full article here: http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/08/04/seeing-struggling-math-learners-as-sense-makers-not-mistake-makers/

Learning will be a struggle for kids no matter what and some more than others. We don’t want them to get discouraged and “learn” to hate learning, so to speak. Falling behind is the quickest way for a child to start down that slope of discouragement. The fastest way to get them back to where they need to be is with one-on-one or small group tutoring. That’s where we come in and excel at getting a child back into the habit of loving to learn! Once they gain confidence and see that they can handle it, they’ll discover the joy of tutoring programs or call us at (979) 314-9132. We are located at 3505 Longmire Drive College Station, TX 77845. Our Facebook page is very active and we frequently post learning tips, tricks, discounts and coupons.

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