Weekly Reflection 5

Hi everyone and welcome back! Today we will be discussing another important concept in math and developing growth mindsets within our students. Specifically, I will be discussing the ideas surrounding math intuition as well as representing math using a variety of visuals and representatives. As an art student, it excites me thinking of math as a visual subject! As a student, I used to think of math as just numbers and memorizing formulas. However, as an educator, I now think of math as a visual subject!

Math Intuition

Math intuition is when students I have a general sense of the math that is being taught and understand what is being asked. This is a very important concept in math because we know that in today’s math classrooms, we aren’t teaching our students to simply memorize concepts and formulas. We want to teach math in a way that if students forget the formulas, they have enough background information and understanding to think logically and make sense of why the formula works. In my placement, I taught lessons that were discovery-based during my grade 8 measurement unit. I would be sure to include lessons that had my students work in small groups to try to solve the formula for finding area, surface area and volume of circles and cylinders. This way, I hoped that my students would be able to make connections, recognize and understand why the formula is what it is, and not just memorize what it is. Many of my students would complain and beg me to give them the formula; however, I think allowing them time to discover why the concept works is so valuable in their overall long-term learning and mathematical growth. Being able to think like a mathematician and understand the relationships in a problem and assess it based on this understanding is integral to student learning. When students have these tools, they are empowered in math – this impacts their overall feelings of confidence, enjoyment and overall grit when learning math.

Representing Math

            Drawing, like talking, gives access to understanding says Jo Boaler. I never really thought of math being such a visual subject area – but as I have started teaching math, I now realize that math is very visual. As I am a visual person, representing and understanding math through representatives, manipulatives and drawings are all so helpful to my overall comprehension. There isn’t one pathway that our students will all think in and there are a variety of ways in which they can represent a math concept that still gets them to the correct answer. As teachers, we need to embrace this and reinforce the fact that there is no ‘one’ way of thinking in math class! While some students may learn from formulas, others may need visuals to help them make sense of what the question is asking. I personally am unable to see numbers and concepts in my mind and need to write something down in order to process and make sense of the problem. Therefore, I understand that my students may need the same support from me!

In this video, Jo Boaler talks about having a math mindset. Students should always be asking themselves, "what is being asked here?"

            It was really interesting hearing Jo Boaler speak about math, saying that it really isn’t as much memorization as we think it is. If we are able to make sense of the number relationships, we don’t actually need to memorize so many formulas. In summary, math shouldn’t strictly be about just memorizing – that isn’t actually helping to grow our brains. Moving forward, I plan to ensure that I’m offering my students a variety of differentiated forms of instruction ­– including visual representatives.

Thanks for reading and following along! I will be back next week with some final reflections and take-aways.