6 minute read
Developing independent learners through self-paced math projects
Tom Cosgrove has developed a model to help students engage with their learning
Recently I had some trouble with my car. Every so often it would stall and I’d have to restart it. It happened twice in one day and I began to get concerned. I made it home safely and started to do some research. After adjusting my search criteria and clicking on a few links I had the solution. I drove to the hardware store to get some supplies, undid a couple of bolts and followed along with a YouTube video to solve the problem myself, without having to book my car into the local garage.
This is the kind of problem-solving ability I want students to leave my classroom with. I want them to be able to tackle a situation that they haven’t seen before with some grit and a mindset that they can move toward a solution themselves, without reaching out immediately to the teacher for help. Why is this a desirable outcome? Much as I want my students to leave my classroom remembering every last thing I’ve taught them, I know they won’t. What are those bigger skills that students will take away through their years in school and into adulthood? In a math classroom, I think two of the big skills we can teach students are perseverance and problemsolving. The math just happens to be the vehicle through which they are taught.
I started my teaching career in a traditional UK comprehensive school. We were teaching to an exam, in a way that was effective to get good test scores. If you could manage this, you were seen as a good teacher. I’ve shifted roles and now work at an independent boarding school in Leysin, Switzerland. I’m the sole teacher of grade 7 and 8 mathematics, and I am grateful for the flexibility I have to experiment with new approaches. In the first weeks of my new role here I was asked by my department head what I would do if I had total freedom over what I taught. Three years later, I’m still trying to find an answer to that question. How could I adjust the way I teach to truly maximize the learning experience for my students and to ensure that they leave my classroom with the bigger skills they need?
I began by thinking more critically about the traditional approach of explanation, example, practice, recite. It gets great exam results. It’s an efficient method of communicating ideas. But does it truly get students thinking critically and solving real problems? I didn’t feel like it was working for me. Students were getting lost during a lengthy explanation; those that understood it quickly had to wait for the other students to get it, and those that didn’t get it needed more
help. By that time the lesson was over. I needed a new approach.
I knew that many other math teachers felt the same way so I built relationships with several of my colleagues, experimented with new approaches and researched best practices. The whole process showed me that I may have the chance to make a big change in math education. I have been fortunate to make some good connections with new colleagues here at Leysin American School, and we are actively working to improve the learning in our classrooms through a self-paced and project-based model.
The key is creating a situation where students are free to move through material at their own pace. Changing our teaching so that each individual student dictates the speed of their learning is a major adjustment that is difficult to be comfortable with. However, this adjustment allows for all students in my classroom to learn the material more deeply and at a pace which suits them, which was never possible before.
To make this type of learning real, I give students a document that contains all the resources they need to be able to learn a specific set of skills. Within this document, I include links to resources from a variety of sources that I know will help my students learn. For a recent project, I used links to Khan Academy, Buzzmath, YouTube, PurpleMath, and Desmos. But students are also free to seek out other resources they find useful if it helps them learn, especially if it happens to be in their native language. I expect my students to learn the content on their own, and I am available to help stimulate discussion and clarify any issues that individuals are having. Once a student thinks he or she has mastered a concept, we arrange a meeting to check they have the required knowledge to move on.
Once they have proven they are ready to move on, the student can begin the final project. A final project varies depending on the topic, and is something creative that gets the students using the skills they just learned in an authentic situation. Learning about angles to get better at playing pool, measuring the heights of local mountains using trigonometry, doing a statistical analysis of the most popular ski resorts in the Alps or finding the area of a neighborhood using compound shapes and Google maps are just some examples. Students know they will be given challenging projects like this at the start of the unit and it motivates their learning. Students learn the skills because they need to apply them to a meaningful project, instead of learning because they might need to use these skills somewhere down the road.
Some critics of blended learning or self-paced approaches fear that this style of learning can become impersonal. From my experience, I have found it to be the opposite. While my students guide their learning using online resources, I spend time having high-quality, individualized check-ins with each student. This way I get to know each child as a learner, and as a person, and my students see in person how much I care for them and want them to succeed. In my classroom, therefore, I have stopped teaching directly to students from the board. I have allowed students more freedom to move along at their own pace, and I am now freer to engage with them individually and to have meaningful discussions about math. We are exploring authentic math problems, through projects that immediately connect to the recent skills they have developed. As a result, my students are more engaged and are leaving my classroom with the content knowledge and the skills they’ll need to advance both in school and in life.
I am actively working with colleagues to improve this model and we are adjusting things regularly. We are developing new projects for both IB Diploma and middle school students, and getting feedback from other educators at different schools. We hope that by trying something new and innovative we are moving closer to a math classroom that prepares students for the future – or at least gives them the confidence to fix their own car by watching a YouTube video.
