Getting Students to Struggle (and
Engage) With Math
Geoff Krallemergentmath.wordpress.com
My Exponential Growth and Decay project
Local!Local!
Relevant!Relevant!
Authentic!Authentic!
21st Century Skills!
21st Century Skills!
My Exponential Growth and Decay project
4.5”
1.62”
1.8”1.37”
7.29 sq in
2. 466 sq in7.29 sq in + 2.466 sq in=9.756 sq in
19.86 in101.6832 sq
in
9.756 sq in/101.6832 sq in = 0.0959
About 10% of the final product
included mathematics???
Objective
Promote Mathematical conflict...
….by any means necessary.
Resources and links at
emergentmath.wordpress.com
A CONFLICT-CENTRIC APPROACH TO MATHEMATICS
Malcolm Swan – Conflict and Discussion Approach to Mathematics
Evidence of “good” mathematical conflict.
• Students talking about math.
• A debate about why / what answer?
• Little teacher direction
• Relevance – being able to make connections between everyday experience
• Task offers multiple possible solutions
• Task links several mathematical concepts
• All student levels are engaged
• Emphasis on process
• Arguing different methods about solving the problem.
Evidence of “bad” (or no) mathematical conflict.
• Sleeping
• Answers are on the board
• Notetaking
• No surprises
• Students are quiet little islands
• Computations
• Teachers’ throat hurts – they’re doing all the work
• Lack of words / word walls
• Students not helping each other
• No questions
Using Problems to create conflict in a PBL Classroom
OTHER TASK TYPES TO PROMOTE CONFLICT
Classifying or Ordering Things
Odd one out
Evaluating “Truthiness”
Evaluating Student Work
Matching
Two ways to a “conflict-centric”
approach
Activiti
esActiviti
es
What would I have done differently?
• Formative Assessment• Focus on modeling with another scenario
“Having Kittens”math.mapshell.org
Exit Ticket (2 minute
assessment)
!
?!
?
One thing that became clear – a lightbulb moment
One thing that you want to make sure not to forget that you learned today
One thing that could be made better
One thing you still have a question about
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