This week we had PD on Maths where Sue Pine
showed us the various pedagogical approaches that engage learners and lead to
desirable outcomes.
One of the things that really struck me was
to have a trusting classroom community where everyone had the right to share
their opinion and to be heard with respect. Such a culture was very important
because it encourages students to share their ideas, thoughts and reflections
freely in the classroom. In such a climate, learning relationships develop and
students learn from each other. They can take risks and ask questions to
clarify their ideas. It is important that in developing such an environment,
care needs to be taken to avoid dependency. Classroom relationships should
allow all students to take intellectual risks.
I have been working on developing such
classroom environment this week. It was a hard task to start with. I had to
constantly remind students of their etiquette in class. I had to encourage students to listen patiently and
then provide valuable feedback to their peers. And most importantly I had to
teach my students how to contribute and clarify their ideas and how they should
respond. Sometimes I got ideas that were quite unexpected. I had to model how
to evaluate ideas and how to voice thoughtful judgement. This became very
tricky when I have students with limited language capabilities. But by having a
positive attitude I can already see that my students are developing confidence
to learn and make sense of mathematics. They are beginning to use the language
of mathematics to respond and share the strategies they had used to work out
their problems. But this is just the beginning! Lots more needs to be done and
I cannot wait to see my students expressing their ideas freely. I want to see
them confidently face not only mathematical challenges but all learning in
class and share and assess the validity of their new ideas.
