This blog post is about how the math department at my school in Suzhou, China implemented changes to the way we taught Math 10 and 11 to incorporate data and research from cognitive science to help our students learn better. I include a summary of what we learned, and some ideas for improvement. It began last summer, at math camp. Yes, I attended math camp as a fully-fledged adult! Yes, there were other adults present. And yes, it was awesome! (Officially named the “Summer Math Conference for Teachers” but let’s not get into the nitty gritty). One of my favourite sessions was the one led by Sheri Hill, Arian Rawle, and Lindsay Kueh on the grade 10 course redesign they have implemented in at their school in Ontario. The course redesign is based on research and best pedagogical practices outlined in the book Make It Stick, The Science of Successful Learning by Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, and Mark A. McDaniel. Book Synopsis: Why is it that students seem to understand what is being taught in class but end up failing when it comes to test day? How does one progress from fluency to mastery over challenging content? Many common study habits like re-reading and highlighting text create illusions of mastery but are in fact completely ineffective. This books explores insights from research in cognitive science on learning, memory, and the brain, as well its implications on teaching and learning. THE WHATAfter the session, I couldn’t wait to bring these ideas back to the math team at my school in Suzhou, China so we could start putting them in action too! We began by looking at issues we noticed our students faced:
We made it our goal to address some of the issues above, taking many ideas directly from the session presented by Hill, Rawle, and Kueh. Like Hill, Rawl, and Kueh, we removed unit tests, which freed up a significant amount time for other topics and activities. Instead, we moved to weekly cumulative quizzes that held students accountable to everything they have learned in class up to the Friday before quiz day (no skills expire!). The weekly schedule looks as follows: |
Sample Fast Fours | |
File Size: | 38 kb |
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Sample Weekly Quiz | |
File Size: | 891 kb |
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April Soo
International math educator who writes, occasionally.
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