Mathematical Mindsets - Jo Bolar - Chapters 6 & 7

WHAT

Chapter 6

- Maths is a beautiful subject, however it is ofter taught as a performance subject
- Children are often sorted into those that can and those that cannot, or those that have the maths gene and those that do not.
- Some students are considered to be gifted at maths, but evidence suggests that although people can be born with brain differences, these are often eclipsed by experiences people have in their lives.
- Some teachers pigeon hole students based on sex, ethnicity or race.
- Some parents believe that their children need to have a higher level of content, however when tested these students often perform well procedurally, but have difficulty linking and explaining their thinking.
- Making maths more equitable - offer all students high-level content, work to change ideas about who can achieve in maths, encourage students to think deeply about maths, teach students to work together, give girls and students of colour additional encouragement to learn math, and eliminate homework


Chapter 7

- Research shows that achievement results increase when students are given the opportunity to learn.
- When students are tracked or grouped according to ability then it limits their achievement potential.
- In order for mixed groups to perform effectively then the following things need to happen: provide open ended tasks, offer choice of tasks and have individualised pathways.
- Many traditional maths classes are one dimensional i.e there is only one way to be successful
- A multidimensional approach is more effective as it includes all the ways to be mathematical.
- Mathematicians in the real world perform calculations, ask questions, propose ideas, connect different methods, use many different representations, and reason through different pathways.
- Assigning group roles is a good way to share responsibility and value all contributions.
- Assigning competence - raising the status of students who may have lower status mathematically in their group. This can be done by sharing their ideas/successes with the whole class.
- It is beneficial to give students opportunities to practise working in groups and co-construct things that they do and don't like to happen when working in groups

NOW WHAT/SO WHAT

There are two key learnings that I have taken from these chapters that I would like to implement into my practice.

a)

Assigning competence:
I see this as a great way to help my less confident students believe that they are mathematicians and to raise their standing amongst their peers. I can achieve this by listening carefully when roaming the class to pick up on ideas that students share with others that I can then share with the whole class as an example of good mathematical thinking. This will take a conscious effort on my behalf.

b)

Grouping:
Currently, when we do rich tasks I leave the option open for students to chose who they work with. This often leads to students working in buddies, small groups or sometimes by themselves. When they do work in groups they often choose to work with their friends. One change I will make is to have one session per week where students are assigned groups. These groups will be random and will change regularly. I will initially see how this plays out before deciding if I assign roles in the groups. Before beginning these groups, we will co-construct together what things students do like to happen, and things that they don't like to happen when working in a group.