At Dan Meyer's recent Modeling session, he quoted the work of Daniel Willingham
"Teacher are so eager to get the answer that we do not devote sufficient time to developing the question.”
As a result of years and years of this practice, it seems that students are interested or think it's the goal of mathematics to merely get the answer. Things such as asking questions, asking for necessary information, estimating, debating, thinking, modeling, using tools, ect. is not the norm in so many of our classrooms. Imagine students asking how you got that instead of what you got.
I was in a classroom yesterday and the students were taking an assessment. While I briefly spoke with the teacher, I saw one student quickly look onto another students paper. This thought quickly raced through my mind: What if all the answers were given to the students at the beginning of the assessment? This would force students to think about the purpose of the assessment and this may cause teachers to start thinking differently about their pedagogy.
For instance, consider the next test/quiz/formative assessment. It can go something like this:
"For so long I have been interested in the answer. But really, answers are not all that interesting when you compare it to how you got your answer. Knowing what you are thinking and what path you are taking to get there is much more interesting. So I'll save you the hassle and give you the answers. Now just show me how you would get there."
So give the answers to the students. Write them on the white board. Tweet them #freeanswers! After the initial shock, your students will want to know what the heck is going on.
I realize the antithesis of this will not work during a lesson. Take for instance the photo below along with the question, "How many golf balls fit in the school bus?" I would kill the mo-jo, if I gave the answer. The answer really is what students will be striving for. I suppose this can be a useful activity to get students and teachers to see how we derive answers can be so much more interesting and fun then getting the answer itself.
I was in a classroom yesterday and the students were taking an assessment. While I briefly spoke with the teacher, I saw one student quickly look onto another students paper. This thought quickly raced through my mind: What if all the answers were given to the students at the beginning of the assessment? This would force students to think about the purpose of the assessment and this may cause teachers to start thinking differently about their pedagogy.
For instance, consider the next test/quiz/formative assessment. It can go something like this:
"For so long I have been interested in the answer. But really, answers are not all that interesting when you compare it to how you got your answer. Knowing what you are thinking and what path you are taking to get there is much more interesting. So I'll save you the hassle and give you the answers. Now just show me how you would get there."
So give the answers to the students. Write them on the white board. Tweet them #freeanswers! After the initial shock, your students will want to know what the heck is going on.
I realize the antithesis of this will not work during a lesson. Take for instance the photo below along with the question, "How many golf balls fit in the school bus?" I would kill the mo-jo, if I gave the answer. The answer really is what students will be striving for. I suppose this can be a useful activity to get students and teachers to see how we derive answers can be so much more interesting and fun then getting the answer itself.
