Undoing the learnt

A major stumbling block I have encountered is that learners believe that they need to get all the answers correct and that they must accept what is being said to them. I need to 'unteach this" and show learners that the learning is actually through getting things wrong and then talking about it, unpacking it to see what has happened. The other stumbling block is getting the children to talk and friendly argue their point or ideas. I felt I need to tackle this one at a time. I started with modelling this myself by getting answers wrong and explaining to the class how I got the answer. Often the learners laughed and tried helping me to get the right answer. I would then say - So I have learnt that I cannot do......but should rather do this......is that right? Can I try again? Am I on the right track this time?


                           

                               This is the visual I have put in the class to help us remember:
                                                Getting it wrong will help us get it right.

DMIC Maths

Last year I had the privilege of completing a series of workshops on DMIC Maths run by Bobbie Hunter at Weymouth School. One of the standouts for me was making the learning fun and authentic to the learners. The other must do was tapping into the learners cultural identity and wealth of knowledge using the big ideas in maths. Sessions were also run in mixed ability groups with 1/2 of the class at a time. I decided to test this theory and see if the learners responded to the change in the programme.

Learner involvement went from approximately half the class being actively involved to the entire class participating.

Learner attitude went from 46% of learners enjoying maths to 96% enjoying working with a partner and doing practical math problem solving.