Why we talk too much and what we might try instead.
Several years ago I taught a lesson on percentages. I stood at the front of the class and explained clearly and simply everything anyone could possibly want to know about the subject. By the end of the lesson, not only were the class thoroughly confused, but they were almost certainly less able to tackle problems involving percentages than they had been when they walked in.
The longer I have been teaching the more I have come to realise that often saying less can be more effective. Even though we aspire to a model of teaching which is child- or adult-centred, collaborative and investigative, for some reason our behaviour in the classroom is as if we believe we can pour knowledge into learners' heads if only we can explain things with sufficient clarity and precision.
Why do we do this?
Very often we were taught in precisely this way and we are the successes of this system. We forget that others in the class did not share our enjoyment of maths. Despite our best intentions it is often easiest to fall back on a model of teaching which is familiar, habitual and comfortable. Also we often mistakenly think that the pressure to cover the curriculum does not give us the opportunity to adopt new approaches. Maybe less coverage, more fully understood would be better. Furthermore, prescriptive models of how maths should be taught have reduced opportunities to be creative or experiment. Often we don’t give students enough time to become familiar with new strategies and for those strategies to begin to succeed.
One strategy for giving children and adults a more meaningful learning experience is to give them opportunities to discuss their mathematics, to develop and share their own approaches to solving problems, and to justify their solutions.
This does not need to be radical or even particularly difficult to implement. Ways in might be:
- John Mason’s strategies “Another and another and another” and “Who can I convince?”
- Activities from Improving Learning In Mathematics
- Displaying without comment all suggested solutions and then asking groups to share their thoughts. Getting a group (of 2 or 4) to agree a shared solution in the knowledge that any one of them might be called upon to explain their solution.
- Getting learners to explain either orally or in writing their understanding of a particular topic or idea.
- Encouraging peer marking
- Sometimes allowing learners to set questions for each other. This has terrific assessment opportunities for both the setter and sitter alike.
This is not an exhaustive list. Please add to it.
- ask adult learners to prepare a presentation on a maths concept. You will also capture a key-skills communications outcome this way
- get adult learners to share their experince of barriers to their learning in the past and to explain what is better about the strategies they use now.