Fostering critical and creative thinking - mathematics

See also: teaching-mathematics

7 Methods

Source

1. Encourage students to figure out the answers, rather than telling them.
2. Move from stuffing head with knowledge and allow students to discover -- a balance?
3. Tasks about mathematical reasoning produce more lightbulb moments
4. Generate examples, analyse and notice patterns - look for similarities/differences/how to test
5. Given the opportunity for students to discover
6. Foster collaboration and communication through group tasks and teacher prompts
7. Use "convince me" as challenging prompt
8. Like it or live it: it's part of the curriculum
9. Linking creativity/critical thinking with maths
10. Creativity - notice relationships between common properties and create rules/conjectures to test
11. Crticial thinking - testing these ideas required to convince others, justify
12. A rubric to help teachers assess three key areas
13. Brief discussion of a three item rubric: analysing, generalising, justifying
14. Problem-solving and reasoning are two different things
15. Creativity == interpret the problem and make choices about a solution
16. Critically - when justifying an interpretation fo the problem and evaluation of the solution
17. Creative and critical thinking are fundamental skills for the future
18. Normal creativity justification - in Maths, start by teaching problem solving and reasoning