Sharing Teaching Ideas: Classroom Voting in Mathematics

2006 ◽  
Vol 100 (2) ◽  
pp. 100-104
Author(s):  
Kelly S. Cline

How do you get your students to take an active role during a mathematics class? For instance, how do you get them to form opinions and to participate in discussions about difficult concepts? There is a large body of education research demonstrating how active learning methods can be very effective, especially in comparison to traditional lectures (e.g., Bonwell and Eison 1991; Davidson 1990; Dees 1991; Hagelgans et al. 1995; Norwood 1995; Springer, Stanne, and Donovan 1999). Even when supplemented with demonstrations and PowerPoint, lectures encourage students to be passive observers, and passive students rarely learn. Classroom voting is a powerful technique promoting active learning. It engages every student in the material, and it can easily be incorporated into an otherwise traditional class. This technique breaks students out of the passive-receptive mode and requires them to participate, creating a more effective learning environment.

Mathematics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 2163
Author(s):  
Edgar Lopez-Caudana ◽  
Maria Soledad Ramirez-Montoya ◽  
Sandra Martínez-Pérez ◽  
Guillermo Rodríguez-Abitia

The use of technology, which is linked to active learning strategies, can contribute to better outcomes in Mathematics education. We analyse the conditions that are necessary for achieving an effective learning of Mathematics, aided by a robotic platform. Within this framework, the question raised was “What are the conditions that promote effective active math learning with robotic support?” Interventions at different educational scenarios were carried in order to explore three educational levels: elementary, secondary, and high school. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were performed, comparing the control and treatment groups for all scenarios through examinations, direct observations, and testimonials. The findings point to three key conditions: level, motivation, and teacher training. The obtained results show a very favourable impact on the attention and motivation of the students, and they allow for establishing the conditions that need to be met for an effective relationship between the teacher and the technological tool, so that better learning outcomes in Mathematics are more likely to be obtained.


1993 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-54

Are you looking for adventure, excitement, fun, and several cooperative-learning activities for a fifth- or sixth-grade mathematics class composed of students of different levels of achievement and experiences? Health Mathematics has the activity book for you! Adventures in Thinking allows students to take an active role in such diverse simulations as being a member of an up-and-coming rock group; taking a voyage to discover hidden treasure; becoming a movie producer; solving mysteries; or acting as an executive in a game company.


1999 ◽  
Vol 92 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-127
Author(s):  
Edward M. Jennings

A handwritten note from one of my students contained the following inscription: “Mathematics is a rock of certainty, a true utopia, that resists all irrational things.” With this statement, the student, Jonas Verdeflor, sparked a thought in my mind that grew and developed into a wonderful series of classroom discussions. Not only did Jonas's thought cause me to recall inspiring quotations from famous mathematicians, it also gave me the idea of having students create their own mathematical quotations. As a result, I asked the students in my junior-year-mathematics class in an all-boys school to bring in two mathematics-related quotations: one written by a famous mathematician and one original statement that they had written.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. p36
Author(s):  
Tiffany Ko ◽  
Lisa Y. N. Law ◽  
Theresa Kwong ◽  
Eva Y. W. Wong

“Flipped classroom” is one of the popular blended learning approaches in Higher Education (HE) with significant use of technology. A “flipped” course typically engages students to do pre-class online learning at their own pace; the teachers then design active learning activities to reinforce students’ online learning in a physical classroom setting. Although literatures suggest that active learning after self-directed online learning can take place not only in traditional lectures hall but also online learning spaces, there is a lack of studies that investigate how the “relocation” of the face-to-face component online would affect students’ learning. As the COVID-19 pandemic has suspended face-to-face teaching on HE campuses worldwide, this article seizes the opportunity to examine the difficulties and possibilities of conducting flipped learning totally online. By evaluating the delivery of a flipped course for 46 research postgraduate students in Hong Kong during the pandemic-stricken period, the teaching team of the captioned course summarizes how the paradigm shift of flipped learning from partially online to totally online simultaneously distort and create new dynamics of in-class interaction and collaboration. Recommendations on how to better implement and research “flipped learning totally online” as a pedagogy across multiple disciplines will also be highlighted.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ngoc Phuong Thanh Phan ◽  
Huan Buu Nguyen

<p>Research into questioning, a form of inquiry to engage students in active and purposeful responses has witnessed its crucial role in teaching English as a foreign or second language. In particular, questioning, from the Socratic philosophy, is an interactive process that involves student thinking and communication of ideas and knowledge for effective learning. However, teacher questioning has not received much attention in English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom context in higher education in Vietnam. Moreover, classroom questioning and teachers’ perceptions of this instructional practice facilitating students’ higher-order skills in non-English majored classes remained scarce. This study therefore examines such perceived use of questioning within non-English majored classes at tertiary context. This paper focuses on the interview data, which explored how seven teachers perceived their respective use of questioning related to active learning of students in General English classes. The findings reveal how teachers perceived questioning as effective in several ways. The findings extend the literature on questioning strategies by providing insightful views into how teachers used questions to promote active learning of students, tailor their existing practices, and make informed decision-making processes for their future undertakings. The paper concludes by presenting implications for teachers and students for the quality instruction and professional growth.</p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0880/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>


Perspektif ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (02) ◽  
pp. 48-54
Author(s):  
Nurmaini Nurmaini

Learning is a system that aims to help the learning process of students, which contains a series of events that are designed, arranged in such a way as to influence and support the learning process of students (Firdaus, 2012). According to Nasution (2000) the learning process is an interaction / process of communication between the teacher and students and between students and students. Intertwined communication should be reciprocal communication created in such a way, so that the message conveyed in the form of the subject matter will be effective and efficient. Students as the subject of learning must play an active role in learning. the activeness of students is assessed from their role in learning, such as asking questions, answering questions, giving responses and others. In addition, the activeness of students is a form of independent learning, namely students trying to learn everything about their own will and ability / business, so that in this case the teacher only acts as a mentor, motivator and facilitator. Therefore, the teacher needs to create an atmosphere of learning that can foster an attitude of collaboration between students and other students. The main problem in learning in formal education (school) today is the low absorption of students. The learning process to this day is still dominated by teachers and does not provide access for students to develop independently through discovery in the process of thinking. According to Dimyati and Mudjiono (2002) the dominance of teachers in the learning process causes students to be passively involved, students are more waiting for the presentation of the teacher rather than looking for and finding their own knowledge, skills and attitudes they need during the learning process. Therefore, it is necessary to apply new learning strategies that can make students actively participate in learning. One active learning strategy developed by Silberman (2011) is true or false active learning strategies. The learning steps in the true or false active learning strategy will activate students from the beginning of learning which will stimulate students to think and motivate students to play an active role in learning activities so that the teacher does not dominate the learning process. This strategy is marked by the teacher making statements that are in accordance with the subject matter, half right and the other half wrong. Then students discuss in their groups to state whether the statement is true or false. By discussing students can exchange opinions. According to Silberman (2011) by listening to various opinions, students will be challenged to think. our brain will do a better learning process if we discuss information with other people. When the learning process is passive, the brain cannot store information properly. In answering questions, students are required to give reasons why they answer correctly and why they answer wrongly. This is so that students do not guess when answering and will make students better understand the material. Then the results of the group discussion will be presented in front of the class, students are given the opportunity to ask questions, answer questions and respond or give opinions. This will activate students more in learning and can train students' courage. According to Silberman (2011), learning activities carried out with the activities of students themselves will cause a knowledge to be more meaningful and can last a long time in memory of students so that the learning outcomes achieved will be better. Based on the results of the study obtained values from the first and second cycles in a row - according (77.33%), and (80.00%).


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-60
Author(s):  
Chad Hershock ◽  
Martin Barrett ◽  
Michael McCarthy ◽  
Michael Melville ◽  
Joe Mertz

Copious research demonstrates the benefits of adding active learning to traditional lectures to enhance learning and reduce failure/withdrawal rates. However, many questions remain about how best to implement active learning to maximize student outcomes. This paper investigates several “second generation” questions regarding infusing active learning, via Think-Pair-Share (TPS), into a large lecture course in Computer Science. During the “Share” phase of TPS, what is the best way to debrief the associated course concepts with the entire class? Specifically, does student learning differ when instructors debrief the rationale for every answer choice (full debrief) versus only the correct answer (partial debrief)? And does the added value for student outcomes vary between tasks requiring recall versus deeper comprehension and/or application of concepts? Regardless of discipline, these questions are relevant to instructors implementing TPS with multiple-choice questions, especially in large lectures. Similar to prior research, when lectures included TPS, students performed significantly better (~13%) on corresponding exam items. However, students’ exam performance depended on both the type of debrief and exam questions. Students performed significantly better (~5%) in the full debrief condition than the partial debrief condition. Additionally, benefits of the full debrief condition were significantly stronger (~5%) for exam questions requiring deeper comprehension and/or application of underlying Computer Science processes, compared to simple recall. We discuss these results and lessons learned, providing recommendations for how best to implement TPS in large lecture courses in STEM and other disciplines.


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