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reSolve - Mathematics by inquiry#

See also: teaching-mathematics, inquiry-learning

re(Solve) - Maths by Inquiry - Oz Government funded project including numerous teaching resources including alignment with Oz Curriculum (but sadly not v9)

reSolve Protocol#

In order to foster a spirit of inquiry in all mathematics teaching and learning: - reSolve mathematics is purposeful - reSolve tasks are challenging yet accessible - reSolve classrooms have a knowledge-building culture

Purposeful#

reSolve contests a view of school mathematics as a body of disconnected facts and procedures to be learned, by:

  • Presenting mathematics as a way of modelling the real world and as an abstract discipline.
  • Focusing on substantial mathematical ideas.
  • Supporting a rich interpretation and enactment of the content and proficiencies of the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics.
  • Acknowledging mathematics as a creative and imaginative endeavor, continually changing and developing in a technological society.
  • Connecting mathematics through deep linkages to other mathematical ideas and to other areas of the curriculum.

Challenging#

reSolve contests a view that some students can “do” mathematics well and others cannot, by:

  • Activating existing knowledge, developing new knowledge and exploring relationships between key ideas by working on meaningful tasks.
  • Engaging students in sustained inquiry, problem solving, decision making and communication.
  • Providing opportunity for all students irrespective of background and experience.
  • Structuring tasks and using technologies to optimise students’ mathematical development.
  • Using evidence of students’ progress to inform feedback and subsequent teaching action.
  • Providing prompts and activities meeting a range of student capabilities, from those needing assistance to those ready for further challenge.

Knowledge-building culture#

reSolve contests a view that mathematics is best learned through copying and memorising, by:

  • Sustaining higher order mathematical thinking through the active role of both teacher and student.
  • Challenging existing conceptions and using mistakes as a vehicle for learning.
  • Enhancing learning through active exploration of a variety of perspectives, including ideas from other people and disciplines.
  • Building success and understanding through collaborative inquiry, action and reflection, enhanced by the use of technologies as tools for working mathematically.
  • Eliciting productive dispositions, including productive struggle and the motivation and confidence to take risks.

Perspectives on inquiry#

Thornton (2016, p. 313)

Whatever our conception of inquiry, the goal must be to encourage students: - to wonder, - to ask questions, - to seek patterns and explain solutions. Such a goal empowers students to both make sense of the world and to begin to work like mathematicians.

References#

Thornton, S. (2017). Empowering Students through Inquiry. In Empowering Mathematics Learners (pp. 313--332). WORLD SCIENTIFIC. https://doi.org/10.1142/9789813224223_0016