Abigail
I had done some work with peer-to-peer interactions at my first community college as an adjunct, but as is the case with Math Talk and other innovations in pedagogy in MFET classes, the students' first instinct was to hold back and hesitate to share with partners. I stayed with it and have to say that the first semester was a tough one. One young man said, "is this a math class or a class in psychology"? I was not happy with the comment but explained that by sharing and/or reporting out as a team, they would be getting good experience for future careers where teams were often formed for projects.
Fifteen weeks later, that same student stopped in my office and said how positive the experiences were in that class. He said it was the ONLY class he had taken at the college where he knew the names of others, and he had developed some friendships. He also said he was more likely to attend my class each week because he felt somehow his partners were dependent on him to show up. Indeed, when someone missed class, the class gave them a small talking-to about the absence. This had little to do with mathematics, but more to do with the idea of responsibility and trust I think.
Just a few thoughts
Ruth
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Ruth Collins
Professor of mathematics education
Walden Univ (retired from a two year school)
Minneapolis MN
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-01-2021 06:01:23
From: Abigail Bailey
Subject: IMPACT in Action #1 - Collaboration/Discussions in the Classroom
Peer-to-peer dialogue plays an important role in teacher preparation courses. What are some ways we can adapt our instruction and/or resources we can use to generate meaningful mathematical dialogue among students?
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Abigail Bailey
Elgin CC
Elgin IL
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