creating mathematical futures through an equitable teaching approach: the case of railside school
Post on 31-Mar-2015
216 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
Creating Mathematical Futures Through an Equitable Teaching Approach: The case of Railside School
Studying Teaching & Learning:
700 students
4 years of high school4 years of high school
3 schools3 schools
Traditional Traditional Railside
Short practicequestions
Teacher Lectures
Tracking
Individual work
Long, conceptualproblems
Teacher questions
Heterogeneous Groups
Group work
No Teacher collaboration
Teacher collaboration
Demographic Comparison
71%
23%
1%
2%
1%
2%
19%
39%
22%
9%
7%
4%
white
Latino
African American
Asian
Filipino
other Groups
Traditional
Railside
Year 1 Pre-AssessmentT
est
Score
0
10
20
30
40
50
Traditional
Railside
Year 1 Post-Assessment
Test
Score
0
10
20
30
40
50
Traditional
Railside
Year 2 Post-Assessment
Test
Score
0
10
20
30
40
50
Traditional
Railside
In year 4:
41% of Railside seniors 23% of traditional seniors
were in advanced classes (pre-calc and calc)
I enjoy math in school - all or
most of the time
Railside
Traditional
47% 70%
Methods
Over 600 hours of classroom observations over 4 years
Video codingQuestionnairesStudent and teacher interviews
Assessments
Equitable teaching practices
Railside SchoolRailside School
Conceptual curriculum
Designed by the teachers
Longer problems
Algebra-geometry links
Multiple representations
Algebra Lab gear
x
1
1
What is the perimeter of this shape?
Complex Instruction
Elizabeth Cohen (1986)
Status Differences
Messages
There are many ways to be smart, no-one is good at all of them and everyone is good at some of them
You have 2 responsibilities – if anyone asks for help you give it. If you need help you ask for it.
Roles Multi-dimensionality
Student-to-Student Accountability
Teacher Equalizing
Complex InstructionComplex Instruction
Roles Multidimensional
Classes
Student-to-Student Accountability
Teacher Equalizing
Complex InstructionComplex Instruction
Asking good questions Rephrasing problems Explaining Using logic Justifying methods Using manipulatives Helping others
Multi-dimensionality
Many more students were successful because there were many more ways to be successful
Back in middle school the only thing you worked on was your math skills. But here you work socially and you also try to learn to help people and get help. Like you improve on your social skills, math skills and logic skills. (R, f, y1)
Multi-dimensionality
J: With math you have to interact with everybody and talk to them and answer their questions. You can’t be just like “oh here’s the book, look at the numbers and figure it out”Int: Why is that different for math?It’s not just one way to do it (…) It’s more interpretive. It’s not just one answer. There’s more than one way to get it. And then it’s like: “why does it work”? (R,f,y2)
Multi-dimensionality
A math person is a person who knows like, how to do the work and then explain it. Like explaining everything to everyone so they could get it. Or they could explain it the hard way, the easy way or just, like average – so we could all get it. That’s like a math person I think. (R, m, y1)
Multi-dimensionality
Justification
Multi-dimensionality
Equity
Int: What happens when someone says an answer..A: We’ll ask how they got itL: Yeah because we do that a lot in class. (…) Some of the students – it’ll be the students that don’t do their work, that’d be the ones, they’ll be the ones to ask step by step. But a lot of people would probably ask how to approach it. And then if they did something else they would show how they did it. And then you just have a little session! (R, m, y3)
Multi-dimensionality
Most of them, they just like know what to do and everything. First you’re like “why you put this?” and then like if I do my work and compare it to theirs theirs is like super different ‘cos they know, like what to do. I will be like – “let me copy”, I will be like “why you did this?” And then I’d be like: “I don’t get it why you got that.” And then like, sometimes the answer’s just like, they be like “yeah, he’s right and you’re wrong” But like – why?” (R, m, y2)
Multi-dimensionality
Roles Multi-dimensionality
Teacher Equalizing
Assigning
Competence
Complex InstructionComplex Instruction
Roles Multi-dimensionality
Student
Responsibility
Assigning
Competence
Complex InstructionComplex Instruction
Int: Is learning math an individual or a social thing?G: It’s like both, because if you get it, then you have to explain it to everyone else. And then sometimes you just might have a group problem and we all have to get it. So I guess both.B: I think both - because individually you have to know the stuff yourself so that you can help others in your group work and stuff like that. You have to know it so you can explain it to them. Because you never know which one of the four people she’s going to pick. And it depends on that one person that she picks to get the right answer. (R, f, y2)
StudentResponsibility
x
1
1
10x + 10
Where’s the 10?
Roles Multi-dimensionality
Student
Responsibility
Assigning
Competence
Complex InstructionComplex Instruction
Student
Responsibility
RolesMulti-dimensionality
High demandEffort
over ‘ability’Clear
expectations
Railside Equitable Practices
AssigningCompetence
To be successful in math you really have to just like, put your mind to it and keep on trying – because math is all about trying. It’s kind of a hard subject because it involves many things. (…) but as long as you keep on trying and don’t give up then you know that you can do it. (R, m, y1)
Effort not‘Ability’
Anyone can be really good at math if they try
Railside Traditional
83% 50%
Effort not‘Ability’
Padded wall
7 feet
30 feet
Skateboarder’s path
The platform has a 7-foot radius and makes a complete turn every 6 seconds. The skateboarder is released at the 2 o’clock position, at which time s/he is 30 feet from the wall.How long will it take the skateboarder to hit the wall?
Question: What have students learned in order to work in these ways?
Math is really beautiful and has these patterns in it that are amazing. Most art is just made up of patterns anyway. And so I’ve written a lot of poems about it, and a lot of songs involving it. Polyrhythms was one thing that kind of interspersed music and math for me—because it’s like patterns that take multiple measures to repeat because they don’t fit evenly over four bars, and it’s exactly like a fraction because if you take a fraction high enough there’s going to be common denominators. And so seeing how patterns can be interesting and, artistic. And math intersperses a lot for me that way. (Toby, age 16)
jo.boaler@sussex.ac.uk
top related