I really liked the idea of agreeing norms around teaching for a Growth Mindset and this would be great for us to discuss as a group- ideas around visualisation (how much do we do that?), around asking children to explain their thinking, to convince others, to persuade and argue.
I really liked the video of the classroom where the students were figuring out 1 divided by 2/3. It really showed the students that were relying on some kind of algorithm and the students that were really trying to visualise the problem.
The idea of the open-ended questioning comes up and of course if we are using inquiry this is nothing new. abut again-how often do we really see it in classes? Often as an assessment at the end, but not always during the actual teaching part of a unit. I really liked the lesson plan about the CCTV camera and think that structure offers a lot for us in Primary to think about-giving the problem individually first, having discussions about the answers, looking at sample answers. I think it can be so vauable for teachers to discuss together student work and try to see what the student was thinking.
Luckily we are not in a school that gives grades or uses setting for abilities but it is good to have this grounded in research. I think we have some work to do on feedback and agian this could be something we begin as a group.
Finally I think it gives us some food for thought about the hidden messages we send children and how mindful we need to be about so many elements of our work- the classroom environment, classroom management, grouping of students, individual vs group work, feedback, etc etc etc.....!
Like Michelle says, we need to be creating a learning environment that develops a growth mindset. There are various elements that contribute to creating this environment:
ReplyDelete- Teach students (and teachers) about the latest research on growth mindset. Use display to reinforce the message.
- Celebrate challenge: you learn when you make mistakes. This can be reinforced regularly both orally and using posters.
- Share process: how did you solve that?
- Encourgage making sense of problems and showing the problem and proposed solution visually.
- Allow problem solving to happen without time pressure.
- Keep groupings flexible and varied. Everybody has opportunity to work with everybody else.
I think these are elements that pervade all areas, not just maths, and are worth looking at more deeply as a group. How well do our classrooms reflect these ideas? How can we make small changes in our practice that would have a big impact?
For example, how many of us praise our students regularly for being 'smart'. I think one of the messages of this unit is to change the focus from 'smart', which develops a fixed mindset, to praising perseverence and sharing ideas and thoughts, whether they are right or wrong.
And, as Michelle says, to be vigilant about presenting ongoing opportunities for problem solving.