Staff Reflections on Teaching Problem Solving
A. What have we tried?
B. What has been successful?
C. What has been a challenge?
What do you need to do next?
- group work
- drawing with chalk
- visual
- child swap
- real contexts
- iMaths investigations
- Laura Candler problem solving problems from Teachers Pay Teachers
- Hands-on materials
- Think tanks
- Thinking Caps
- Rich tasks
- Task rotations
- individual (time limit)
- partner work
- strategy games
- Think tanks as extension work
- Acting it out
- Scaffolding individuals
- Ability leveling/ differentiation of tasks
- Games
- Maths bags (send home fun maths tasks and games for homework)
- Sorting awards
- nRich
- Teach This website
B. What has been successful?
- Acknowledging multiple ways to get there
- Peer learning
- strategy games
- explicit teaching
- Identifying the strategy used
- discussion of solutions and attempts
- homework enjoyed being done
- Learning from errors
- You tube counting songs
- Partner work
- 1:1 work
- games
- open ended problems
- differentiated groups – knowing what level to pitch the problem at/how they can help
- Visual learning and kinesthetic
- Authentic learning – more effective if it is real
- Group work
- risk takers
- time limit
- using school officer to support and guide with questioning
C. What has been a challenge?
- Human resources – facilitators
- organisation
- difficult to control
- children are scared to have a go
- differentiation
- thinking
- 1:1 time to work
- 1:1 time to test
- extension
- resources/iPads
- Addressing all levels of abilities
- pre-teaching other strategies
- time
- evidence gathering- how do they tell you
- class grouping
- dependency
- time and content
- behaviour
- resources
- managing groups
What do you need to do next?
- class box of hands-on resources
- more problem solving
- model better
- resources
- an ideas bank – for “how-to” for teachers
- organise tasks
- link problems to curriculum
- incorporate maths/numeracy with Athletics program
- allocate time to it
- do it regularly
- plan for it
- organise resources
- collaborate with colleagues