Problem Solving Approaches and Analysis

Mathematical Dialogue and Consensus

Between Students
Reporter: Jhan Glend S. Castañares

What is a Mathematical Dialogue?

- a mathematical communication that occurs in a classroom.
- Effective dialogue happens when students articulate their
own ideas and seriously consider their peers’ mathematical
perspectives as a way to construct mathematical understandings.
Importance of Mathematical Dialogue
Talking about mathematical concepts allows students to reflect on their own understanding while
making sense and critiquing the ideas of others. When done in a collaborative and supportive learning
environment, this can support achievement of higher order thinking skills. Students can make conjectures,
link prior knowledge to current understanding, reason about mathematics, refine and amend their
approaches, and take ownership of their mathematical knowledge.

Students benefit greatly from learning to use the tools of mathematical dialogue, including:
1. Words
2. Symbols
3. Diagrams
4. Physical models
5. Technology

One approach to giving students the information needed for a mathematics lesson involves the
teacher simply telling the students what they need to know. Far more productive, however, is more a
thoughtful approach to student engagement that encourage a productive dialogue.
CLASSROOM EXAMPLE OF MATHEMATICAL DIALOGUE

Establishing a Mathematical Dialogue Learning Community

It is important to establish a learning environment that welcomes student involvement. The first
step is setting the expectation that every student will contribute to the discourse community. Students must
be encouraged to use their problem-solving, reasoning and communication skills to make conjectures,

1|Page
explore their own ideas and approaches, and find solutions to routine and non-routine mathematics
problems.
Process Standards:
1. Problem-solving
2. Reasoning and proof
3. Communication
4. Connections
5. Representation

- these can be seen in action in a dialogue-rich mathematics community as students

interact, question one another and convey their understanding

MATHEMATICAL DIALOGUE CLASSROOM

1. Students and teachers acknowledging and discussing errors and the reasons behind them to help
students build greater understanding.

2. Students questioning each other using mathematics arguments to establish the correctness of
solutions.

3. Students reaching and justifying conclusions based on their own mathematics knowledge without
relying on the authority of teachers.

4. Students engaging in “productive struggle” with appropriate scaffolds for support.

5. Students encouraged to use a variety of approaches to convey their knowledge and solution strategies,
including oral; written; and physical, graphical, pictorial, or symbolic representations.

Facilitating Meaningful Mathematical Dialogue

TEACHER’S ACTION

Engaging students in purposeful sharing of mathematical ideas, reasoning, and

approaches, using varied representations.

2|Page
 Selecting and sequencing student approaches and solution strategies for whole-
class analysis and discussion.

Facilitating discourse among students by positioning them as authors of ideas,

who explain and defend their approaches.

Ensuring progress toward mathematical goals by making explicit connections to

student approaches and reasoning.

STUDENTS’ ACTION

Presenting and explaining ideas, reasoning, and representations to one another in

pairs, small groups, or whole-class dialogue.

Listening carefully to and critiquing the reasoning of peers, using examples to

support or counterexamples to refute arguments.

Seeking to understand the approaches used by peers by asking clarifying

questions, trying out other’s strategies, and describing the approaches used by the
others.

Identifying how different approaches to solving a task are the same and how
they are different.

Facilitating student engagement in mathematical dialogue begins with the decisions teachers make
when they plan classroom instruction. The tasks they use, the ways in which they organize the classroom,
and the behaviors they model communicate expectations for classroom norms, including the ways students
are expected to engage in classroom discussions.

Depending on prior experiences, students might find these new expectations for engagement
uncomfortable and may not be ready to plunge into mathematical dialogue feet first. Teachers must ease
the transition to a dialogue-rich mathematics classroom and prepare students to engage in such discussions.
It is important to carefully consider the best ways to coordinate student interaction in pairs, small groups,
or whole-class interactions to ease transitions and maximize learning.

To support students, teachers must help students create a vision for expected behaviors and actions,
prepare them for their roles by modeling or role-playing, and reinforce these behaviors consistently.
Teachers need to monitor progress as students engage in mathematics discussions, supporting them as their

3|Page
mathematical knowledge grows and they become more skilled at expressing ideas coherently and using
vocabulary, syntax, and semantics precisely

Teachers should observe, listen to and monitor students to support instructional decision-making.
Determining what questions to ask, which students to call on, when to intervene and when to extend
student thinking, provides opportunities to understand student thinking, monitor growth and assess
knowledge. A discourse-rich classroom enables teachers to gain insights not only about what students
know, but also about the approaches they use, how–and how well–they understand the ideas, and the ways
they present their knowledge.

In addition to content knowledge, mathematical discourse allows teachers to monitor students’

dispositions and gauge their developing confidence, interest, and perseverance. Teachers can use this
information to determine areas of confusion or frustration in order to decide when an intervention might be
needed. They also examine understandings and misconceptions revealed during classroom discussions and
adjust lesson plans accordingly.
Asking the right questions can help support instructional decision making and direct student focus.

Engaging Every Student in Mathematical Dialogue

All students are mathematics language learners, regardless of their level of English language
proficiency, and discourse allows ALL students to develop mathematical language.
While it is important to build scaffolds to support students who are learning English and
mathematics at the same time, it is essential to recognize that mathematics is a technical language that all
students must learn. Students who are English speakers also require support as they learn the language of
mathematics.

Dialogue allows students to practice precision in multiple areas, including:

1. Vocabulary

- English words with a different meaning in mathematics, such as “negative,” “table,” or

“rational.”

4|Page
 - Specialized terms, such as “hypotenuse” or “trapezoid.”
- Terms with multiple meanings in mathematics, such as “median” or “base.”

2. Symbols
- ways to read and interpret symbolic representations.
For example, “a × b” can be expressed as “a times b,” “the product of a
and b,” or “multiply a and b.”

3. Syntax
- Understanding the rules that govern the structure of sentences.
For example, “A number y is 4 more than a number x” is translated symbolically to
“y=x+4.”

4. Semantics
- The process of making meaning from language.
-The same mathematics word may be interpreted
differently depending on the context.

For example, the median of a set of numbers versus the median of a triangle.

Six Strategies in Promoting Mathematical Thinking and Dialogue

Strategy 1: Help students work with and rely on one another.

- Rules such as “Ask three before you ask me” can help establish classroom expectations by
encouraging students to seek assistance from peers before defaulting to the teacher. The teacher can
also designate student experts (students who have demonstrated depth of understanding about a
particular problem, concept or procedure) whom other students can consult before approaching the
teacher.

Strategy 2: Allow students to work independently before sharing in small or large groups.
- Students need time to gather their thoughts and identify what they know or do not know before they
are exposed to the influence of other students. Then they can compare and contrast their approaches
and solutions with those shared by others during the mathematics discussion.

Strategy 3: Use questions strategically to engage students in mathematical discourse.

- Teachers can engage students in mathematical discourse by posing questions that encourage
discussion and debate. Strategic prompts and questions require students to attend to particular
aspects of the learning process, explain and justify their thinking, and deepen their understanding in
the process.

5|Page
Strategy 4: Acknowledge the importance of mistakes in learning and understanding
- Learning mathematics is not just about getting the right answer. It is also about learning from
previous mistakes. Encourage students to take risks in mathematics by recognizing that students
will make errors because they are exploring and making conjectures.

1. Reminding students constantly that errors are expected and natural and that they can be a good
thing because they lead to enhanced learning.

2. Helping students recognize what they have learned by analyzing their mistakes and identifying
misunderstandings.

3. Encouraging students to ask questions to clarify and critique the reasoning of their peers and
establish the correctness of solutions.

4. Empowering students to reach and justify conclusions based on their own mathematics
knowledge without relying on the authority of the teacher.

Strategy 5: Use collaborative learning strategies.

When students work with peers or in small groups, they are able to take risks and build
confidence on a small scale before they present solutions to the whole class.
1. Think-pair-share. This approach can be used in a variety of instructional circumstances to
encourage students to engage in mathematics independently and then share their results with a
partner.
2. Numbered heads. When students are working in groups of three or four, each can be assigned a
number. Students know that any member of the group may be called on to provide a response, so
everyone must have the same level of understanding.

Strategy 6: Take a creative approach to engaging all students in whole class discussion.
- Teachers can use a variety of methods to gather information from the whole class or individuals that
simultaneously allow them to assess individual and collective student understanding.
1. Thumbs up/Thumbs down
- Teachers pose a question or problem that has a dichotomous answer (yes/no, true/false, X
or Y) and ask students to respond, using thumbs up to represent one choice and thumbs down to
represent the other.
2. Response sticks
- Teachers write each student’s name on a Popsicle stick or similar item, place the sticks in a
container, and randomly select students by choosing a stick.
3. Classroom response systems or other digital tools.
- Teachers can use classroom response systems to gather immediate feedback from students
by asking them to respond using a clicker, website or text message and display results as a chart or
graph.

6|Page
 Consensus between Students
How will you address the question if your student asks this?

Student:
“My answer is different from my partner’s answer, which one is correct?”

Teacher implementing Student-to-Student

Typical Teacher
Consensus

A typical teacher response is often to point Students are expected to talk about what
the correct answer and explain why the answer is they think the answer is, share why they think their
correct. answer is correct and attend to come to a
consensus on the answer before they seek
mediation from the teacher.

Form a Consensus-Decision Making Strategy

- is a means to encourage peer discussions among students. The goal is for students to form a
consensus to proposed questions by discussing, analyzing and breaking down the subject or topic.
According to Vygostsky, Smith and Wilhelm (2006)*, the consensus-decision making process
encourages students to participate in meaningful interactive conversations and discussions with their
peers. These interactions, provide students with an opportunity to critically analyze and rationalize a topic,
idea or thought from different points of view.
Simply put, the consensus-decision making process helps students make sense of a topic through
interaction with their peers

How to Use Form a Consensus-Decision Making Strategy?

1. Preparation:
Select a text material to implement the Form a Consensus-Decision Making Strategy. Using the
content as a reference, write down questions that will form the crux for the discussion. The questions can
be framed to stimulate a deeper reflection of the topic or to explore the topic in relation to the real world

2. Individual Reasoning
Write the questions on the board and instruct students to write down their opinions, ideas or
thoughts on each statement. They can be allotted a duration of about 10 minutes to complete this task.

3. Small Groups
• Place students into small groups of approximately 3 members.
• Instruct them to share their individual opinions and to reach a consensus for each question.
• Encourage students to analyze, discuss and think about the statement from each student’s point of
view.
• Encourage them to support their claims using examples from the content or even from real life.

Teachers can supervise and assist with these group discussions. When groups are not able to reach any
consensus, teachers can help by altering the phrasing of the question to lead the discussion.

4. Whole-Class Activity
After every group has come to a consensus on the questions, the strategy is continued as a whole
class activity. Each student group is asked to select a representative to present their group decision to the
rest of the class. The teacher can take note of each group’s answers on the board. A class-wide discussion is
then initiated, focusing more on the questions that had different responses.
Students are asked to support or dismiss each other’s opinions using valid arguments and references from
the content.
Teachers can help students come to the correct consensus if the class is still having trouble agreeing.

7|Page
Problem Solving Approaches and Analysis

Title: Teachers providing just enough information to establish

background/intent of the problem, and students clarifying, interpreting, and
attempting to construct one or more solution processes (Cobb et.al 1994)

Reporter: Roldan Bantayan

INSTRUCTIONAL DELIVERY

According to (Hattie, 2009), a teacher employing instructional strategies and practices that are
proven to lead to increased mastery of lessons. Better learning happens in a dynamic setting in which
teachers offer explicit active instruction than in situations in which teachers do not actively guide
instruction and instead turn control over content and pace of instruction to students
The structured and systematic approach of explicit instruction emphasizes mastery of the lesson to
ensure that students understand what has been taught, become fluent in new material, and can generalize
what they learn to novel situations they encounter in the future.
Many instructors in engineering, math and science have students solve “problems”. But are their
students solving true problems or mere exercises?
The former stresses critical thinking and decision making skills. Whereas the latter requires only the
application of previously learned procedures.

PRINCIPLE OF TEACHING PROBLEM-SOLVING

 Model a useful problem-solving method. Problem solving can be difficult and sometimes tedious.
Show students by your example how to be patient and persistent and how to follow a structured
method, such as Woods’ model described here. Articulate your method as you use it so students see
the connections.

 Help students understand the problem. In order to solve problems, students need to define the
end goal. This step is crucial to successful learning of problem-solving skills. If you succeed at
helping students answer the questions “what?” and “why?” finding the answer to “how?” will be
easier.
A poorly defined problem - or a problem whose nuances you don't completely understand - is much
more difficult to solve than a problem you have clearly defined and analyzed. The way a problem is
worded and understood has a huge impact on the number, quality, and type of proposed solutions.

8|Page
  Take enough time. When planning a lecture/tutorial, budget enough time for: understanding the
problem and defining the goal, both individually and as a class; dealing with questions from you
and your students; making, finding, and fixing mistakes; and solving entire problems in a single
session.

 Ask questions and make suggestions. Ask students to predict “what would happen if …” or
explain why something happened. This will help them to develop analytical and deductive thinking
skills. Also, ask questions and make suggestions about strategies to encourage students to reflect on
the problem-solving strategies that they use.

 Link errors to misconceptions. Use errors as evidence of misconceptions, not carelessness or

random guessing. Make an effort to isolate the misconception and correct it, then teach students to
do this by themselves. We can all learn from mistakes.

WOOD’S PROBLEM-SOLVING MODEL

1. Define the problem

 The system. Have students identify the system under study by interpreting the information
provided in the problem statement. Drawing a diagram is a great way to do this.
 Known(s) and concepts. List what is known about the problem, and identify the knowledge
needed to understand (and eventually) solve it.
 Unknown(s). Once you have a list of knowns, identifying the unknown(s) becomes simpler. One
unknown is generally the answer to the problem, but there may be other unknowns. Be sure that
students understand what they are expected to find.
 Units and symbols. One key aspect in problem solving is teaching students how to select,
interpret, and use units and symbols. Emphasize the use of units whenever applicable. Develop
a habit of using appropriate units and symbols yourself at all times.
 Constraints. All problems have some stated or implied constraints. Teach students to look for
the words only, must, neglect, or assume to help identify the constraints.
 Criteria for success. Help students to consider from the beginning what a logical type of answer
would be. What characteristics will it possess? For example, a quantitative problem will require
an answer in some form of numerical units (e.g., $/kg product, square cm, etc.)

2. Think about it
 “Let it simmer”. Use this stage to ponder the problem. Ideally, students will develop a mental
image of the problem at hand during this stage.
 Identify specific pieces of knowledge. Students need to determine by themselves the required
background knowledge from illustrations, examples and problems covered in the course.
 Collect information. Encourage students to collect pertinent information such as conversion
factors, constants, and tables needed to solve the problem.
3. Plan a solution

9|Page
  Consider possible strategies. Often, the type of solution will be determined by the type of
problem. Some common problem-solving strategies are: compute; simplify; use an equation;
make a model, diagram, table, or chart; or work backwards.
 Choose the best strategy. Help students to choose the best strategy by reminding them again
what they are required to find or calculate.
4. Carry out the plan
 Be patient. Most problems are not solved quickly or on the first attempt. In other cases,
executing the solution may be the easiest step.
 Be persistent. If a plan does not work immediately, do not let students get discouraged.
Encourage them to try a different strategy and keep trying.
5. Look back
 Encourage students to reflect. Once a solution has been reached, students should ask themselves
the following questions:
o Does the answer make sense?
o Did I answer the question(s)?
o What did I learn by doing this?
o Could I have done the problem another way?

STRUCTURE of EFFECTIVE INSTRUCTION

Focused/Teacher –Directed Instruction

I do.

Guided Instruction
We do.

Cumulative Learning
You do it together.

You do it. Independent Learning

Focused/Teacher –Directed Instruction

This component includes the learning target and teacher-directed instruction. Teacher is modeling
and thinking aloud with students as she presents new information.

Guided Instruction

This component includes scaffolding and support for students. The teacher informally assesses
student understanding at this point and guides students with questions and cues to prompt student learning.

Cumulative Learning

10 | P a g e
 This component provides opportunity for students to apply new skills and thinking to novel
situations through peer interactions. Students are interacting with their peers through discourse (often
referenced as accountable talk using academic language, classroom talk, or academic conversations),
discussions, inquiry, argument/debate, etc.

Independent Learning

This component includes opportunity for students to apply what has been learned. Independent
learning includes self-regulation and metacognition. These two thoughts require students to establish goals
for their learning, determine if they are in fact learning and reaching their goals, and to think about their
thinking (what am I trying to accomplish, what strategies am I using to get there, and how well am I
doing?).

Problem Solving Approaches and Analysis

Teacher Accepting Right or Wrong Answers in a Non-

Evaluative Way
Reporter: Kenneth Mendoza

Getting students to participate in classroom discussions is an essential part of teaching, from

kindergarten. And after while the specifics of each situation vary on the subject matter and the student’s
age, the teachers should be prepared to the students who answer whether it is right or wrong.

When the learners are presenting their solutions to a problem, it is suggested that the teacher should
accept right or wrong answers in a non-evaluative way and probe solution methods regardless of their
success. The teacher should assist the students in verbalizing their solution attempts in a meaningful way.

Handling Right or Wrong Answers

Right way to Handle Right Answers

11 | P a g e
1. Give Praise and Rewards at the Right Time.

Praise is one of the most powerful things a teacher can offer to the students when delivered well,
praise gives students the drive and motivation to continue participating more.

2. When your students give a right answer on the first try without help, give special recognition.

There are so many ways to recognize students. A good recognition comes with a stronger sense of
community and self-importance. Giving Recognition can help the students to build positive self-esteem

3. Let the student know it is alright to try even if unsure to the answer
This can also help students to be more confident in participating
Right way to handle Wrong Answers
1. Asking the question ‘How did you arrive at your answer?”.

In this scenario, you're leading the student to discover on their own where and how they went
astray. What’s cool about this technique s that, with your prompting and further questioning, they’ll
often work their way to the answer you’re looking for. It takes spending some time with one
particular student, but it’s worth the effort- as well as the lesson for the rest of the class.

2. You’re on the right track, but not there yet.

This is direct, but also encouraging. It validates the student thinking and motivates them to go a
little deeper. It also helps the rest of the class adjust and fine-tune their own thinking. It does, of
course, have to be true. Otherwise you’ll send your entire class in the wrong direction.

3. Interesting….. It’s not exactly what I was looking for, but tell me more.

This is a good response when you hear something you haven't heard or thought of before the
students may have an idea or interpretation that is every bit as good as the one you have in mind but
just comes at the problem from different angle.

4. I see where you're going, but remember that….

In this instance, the student is way off, which is a sign that others are likely in the same boat.
The best way to handle it is to offer a hint. Give them clue, leave a bread trail, and get them near the
right path but not quite on it. It’s better to have students wrestle a bit to get a solution rather than
guiding them directly.

5. Thank you

12 | P a g e
 This is a good way to go when many hands are in the air and you want to give everyone a
chance to be heard. The way it works is that you would call on every student with their hand up and
simply thank them for their answer, without ever commenting on whether any of them are correct.
After working your way through the entire group, you would then reveal the solution you were
looking for.

Problem Solving Approaches and Analysis

Teachers guiding, coaching, asking insightful questions

and sharing in the process of solving problems (Lester et
al., 1994)
Reporter: Rizelle Ela

Teachers as Coaches of Cognitive Processes in Problem–based Learning

Problem–based Learning

Problem–based learning (PBL) is both a curriculum development tool and an instructional strategy
(Savery & Duffy, 1998). PBL simultaneously develops problem-solving strategies, knowledge bases in
multiple disciplines, and various skills by placing the learner in the active role of problem solver
confronted with an ill-structured problem that mirrors real-world situations.

“The starting point for learning is always the problem” (Boud, 1985, 14). A problem is considered a
stimulus for which a learner does not have a ready response; it is also one that students are apt to face as
future professionals. Therefore, in PBL classrooms, learners assume the role of problem solvers, while
teachers assume the role of coaches. In the teaching and learning process, information is shared but
knowledge is personally constructed by the learners. Thinking is fully articulated and held to strict
benchmarks. Appropriate and authentic assessment accompanies the entire learning process in the PBL
approach.

Teachers as Coaches of Cognitive Processes

As an instructional strategy, PBL offers ample opportunities for learners to be engaged in various
cognitive processes, such as defining a problem, gathering information, analyzing data, building and testing
hypotheses, generating solutions, and evaluating their outcomes. This is largely due to the manner in which

13 | P a g e
the ill-structured problem is crafted. Such ill-structured problems demand that learners activate both
creative and critical thinking skills when solving them.

Hence, the learners suspend the guessing game of “What's the right answer that the teacher wants?”;
instead, they become more motivated and more engaged in learning since they now know and feel that they
are empowered to impact on the outcome of their own investigation. Their learning experiences become
meaningful, especially when they are involved in solving problems that they regard as significant. The
relevance of the context for the learners offers an obvious answer to their usual questions of “Why do we
need to learn this information?” and “What does schoolwork have to do with anything in the real world?”

In this sense, PBL is vastly different in its pedagogical approach to that of the traditional chalk-and-
talk style of didactic teaching. At the same time, one would expect differences to also exist in other
dimensions of teaching and learning, such as the roles of teachers and learners, learning outcomes, and
assessment. For example, the usual paper-and-pencil mode of assessment is not appropriate in the PBL
approach as PBL tends to assess learning in ways that demonstrate understanding and not mere acquisition
of knowledge. In the PBL approach, since learners' prior knowledge is activated and opportunities are
provided for them to elaborate and apply knowledge in contexts similar to the learning contexts, the
learning outcomes often exceed expectations. Learners not only retain what they learn but they can
appropriately use the knowledge they have learned:

The advantage of such an approach is that students become much more aware of how the
knowledge they are acquiring can be put to use. Adopting a problem solving mentality, even when it is
marginally appropriate, reinforces the notion that the knowledge is useful for achieving particular goals.
Students are not being asked to store information away; they see how it works in certain situations which
increase the accessibility (Prawat, 1989, 18).

Last but not least, the role of teachers adopting the PBL approach also changes. Instead of being the
“sage on the stage,” they now become the “guide by the side.” They function more as mentors taking on the
coaching role. Coaching is a process of goal setting, modeling, guiding, facilitating, monitoring, and
providing feedback to learners in order to support their active and self-directed thinking and learning. This
change of role may not be obvious to teachers. Even if it is apparent, we must not assume that teachers can
take on the coaching role easily. Coaching is an intense and complex process, and teachers do require
training and experience, coupled with reflections, to excel in it.

The role of teachers in enhancing motivation and fostering cognitive engagement as part of the
coaching process includes these functions (Blumenfeld et al., 1998, 116):

 Create opportunities for learning by providing access to information.

 Support learning by scaffolding instruction and modeling and guiding students to make tasks more
manageable.
 Encourage students to use learning and metacognitive processes.
 Assess progress, diagnose problems, provide feedback, and evaluate results.
 Create an environment conducive to constructive inquiry.

14 | P a g e
  Manage the classroom to ensure that work is accomplished in an orderly and efficient fashion.

Project-based learning requires considerable knowledge, effort, persistence, and self-regulation on

the part of students; they need to devise plans, gather information, evaluate both findings and their
approach, and generate and revise artifacts. Such requirements are not easily met. Teachers will play a
critical role in helping students in the process, and shaping opportunities for learning, guiding students'
thinking, and helping them construct new understandings (p. 131).

McConnell (2000), who is professor of sport and head of the School of Sport at UNITEC Institute
of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand, and author of the best-selling book Inside the All Blacks,
commented on coaches and coaching: “Coaches are leaders” (p. 11), “Coaching does not always go
smoothly” (p. 13), and “To be a successful coach, you must be a successful teacher” (p. 139). Though his
comments were made with reference to sports, I believe they are equally applicable to and descriptive of
the coaching process in education: Teachers are indeed leaders, and they do need to modify their lesson
plans to suit particular teaching contexts. There will be interruptions and surprises in class that teachers
have to learn to manage or solve. In fact, I would say that “to be a successful teacher, you must be a
successful coach.”

The coaching role of teachers in conducting a PBL unit has been likened to that of a sports coach.
As coaches, teachers assume a supporting sideline role. They must know when to offer help as it is needed
and to provide guidance in building and testing strategies. The learners are the key players in the game.

In PBL, teachers coach a variety of tasks, ranging from communication (how learners receive,
share, and make sense of what they read, write, speak, and hear) to information gathering (from the
library, the Internet, and experimentation) and autonomous learning habits (self-initiative and self-
direction). All coaching and learning in PBL are done in the context of the problematic situation and of the
disciplines in which the problem applies.

Costa and Garmston (1994) introduced another metaphor for coaching. They envisioned it as a
conveyance, something like a stagecoach. From their notion, to coach means to convey a valued colleague
from where he or she is to where he or she wants to be. Skillful cognitive coaches apply specific strategies
to enhance another person's perceptions, decisions, and intellectual functions. Changing these inner
thought processes is prerequisite to improving overt behaviors that, in turn, enhance student learning (p.
2).

Two aspects of this definition support the salient features of the PBL approach. Firstly, the PBL
approach is learner-centric and constructivist in nature. In fact, the first step in designing any PBL unit is to
know the students. Only their interests and needs will drive their learning through PBL.

Secondly, in the early stages, teachers tend to be uncomfortable with coaching PBL, feeling “a lack
of control” over the direction and development of the lesson. Often learners also find that they “do not

15 | P a g e
learn much.” Indeed, the roles of coaching and coaches are so essential that “few educational innovations
achieve their full impact without a coaching component” (Costa & Garmston, 1994, 7).

The Three Levels of Coaching

It has been observed in teacher development workshops that, while coaching has to be the most
pervasive activity in PBL, it is also the least familiar and least automatic to teachers.

In coaching cognition, we are not concerned with teaching any particular type of thinking. Instead,
the emphasis and practice are on fostering “thoughtfulness” (Newmann, 1990) through the use of
interpretation, analysis, application, and manipulation of information in order to address a “messy”
problem, a mental challenge of sort that cannot be addressed through routine application of previously
learned information. Here, cognition involves the application of higher-order thinking. Beyer (1997)
suggested that, to provide compelling opportunities for higher-order thinking in the classroom, teachers
need to do the following:

 Frame learning with thoughtful questions.

 Provoke puzzlement or dissonance.
 Engage students in knowledge-producing activities.
 Structure learning around knowledge-producing strategies.
Asking thoughtful questions is part of coaching cognition. “A thoughtful question is clearly not a
question that can be answered simply by recall or with a single word or phrase” (Beyer, 1997, 32). It is also
one to which there is no preferred or “right” answer. What it does is to stimulate thinking beyond the mere
recall of facts. Specifically, Wiggins (1987) listed several criteria that characterize a thoughtful question (p.
12):
 It deals with the most controversial and important topics or issues of a discipline or subject.
 It has no obvious, single, prescribed correct answer.
 It requires analysis, evaluation, and/or synthesis, as well as other types of complex thinking.
 It allows personalized responses because there is no one correct way to go about developing an
adequate response.
 It requires the production or construction of new knowledge—knowledge presumably unknown to
the students prior to receiving the question.
 It advances students toward a deeper understanding of the subject on which they focus.

The following are examples of questions useful for coaching cognition:

Challenging questions

 Are you sure? Have you considered … ?

 Do you have enough facts to suggest … ? How reliable is … ? How valid is … ? How reasonable is
…?
 Does anyone believe/know this to be true? If what Daniel and Mary say is true, do you still believe
…?

16 | P a g e
Probing questions

 Tell me more. Can you say more about that?

 What about … ? Who else? What if …?
 How so? Why?
 What do you mean? What does this mean for the problem?

Cognitive questions

 What is your hypothesis, hunch, your best guess about this?

 What is going on here? What seems important?
 Where does this fit in? What does this information tell you?

Metacognition, as described by Costa (2001, 82), is a mental processing that involves knowing what we
know and what we don't know. It is our ability to devise a plan for producing whatever information is
needed, to be conscious of our own steps and strategies during the act of problem solving, and to reflect on
and evaluate the productiveness of our thinking…. Probably the major components of metacognition are
developing a plan of action, keeping that plan in mind over a period of time, and then evaluating the plan
upon its completion. Mapping out a strategy before embarking on a course of action helps us consciously
track the steps in the sequence of planned behaviors for the duration of the activity.

Therefore, coaching at the level of metacognition involves monitoring the progress of the cognitive
processes that learners are engaged in. Teachers might consider using the following questions to help them
coach PBL at the level of metacognition:

Challenging questions

 Are you sure? Have you considered … (process or strategy)?

 How reliable is … (process or strategy)? How valid is … (process or strategy)?
 Do you really know or … ?

Monitoring questions

 How are things progressing? What still needs to be done? What else still needs attention?
 What, if anything, in your goals and strategies needs to change? What has been helpful to you so
far? Have you reached your goal?
 What conclusions have you drawn? What solutions are emerging? Where do you see
inconsistencies, gaps, ambiguities, or failures?
Metacognitive questions

 Where can we start? How do we proceed? What is your strategy?

 Why is this (process or strategy) important?
 How could we go about this? Who will do this?
 How can we learn more about this?

17 | P a g e
 At the next level, coaching for epistemic cognition, we are more concerned about the recognition
and application of the limits of knowledge, the certainty of knowing, and the criteria of knowing. The
following are examples of questions to coach learners at this level:

Probing questions

 What makes you say that?

 If …, then … ?
 Can you say more about that?
Epistemic cognitive questions

 How do you know?

 What can we know? To what degree of certainty?
 Why do we need to know more? What is at stake here?

All of these questions serve as exemplary verbal cues for teachers to engage learners at these
different levels of coaching. It has been widely acknowledged that the single most important teaching act is
asking questions. Asking good, thoughtful questions is never as easy and straightforward as the questioning
techniques themselves. Questioning techniques such as wait-time I and wait-time II, using nonverbal cues
(eye contact, proximity, gestures), and intonation, which fall in the domain of skills, can be enhanced
through practicing. Asking thoughtful questions, however, is a different matter. While it is possible and
encouraged for teachers to prepare their questions before asking them, subsequent follow-through questions
will depend on learners' responses to the first question asked. Often teachers would have to phrase their
follow-through questions on the spot, and this requires skill and evaluated experience.

An easy-to-remember guiding principle is this:

 Pause: listen attentively and emphatically to the learner.
 Paraphrase: summarize, rephrase, translate, or give an example.
 Probe: seek clarification whenever necessary.
Try using all these three levels of cognitive questioning, but they must be appropriate to the specific
coaching events. Begin by questioning less and listening more to establish learners' ownership and
empowerment of the entire PBL process.
What's Next after Coaching? A Framework to Develop Learners as Active Inquirers
Conventionally, when a teacher sets a task requiring students to, say, calculate the specific
heat capacity of a given solid, the learning objective is to be able to define what specific heat capacity of a
solid is. The mindset of the teacher is to focus on the product, on academic rationalism, on getting the one
correct answer (see Table 1).

When teachers begin to redesign the learning task and ask students “How do you find the
specific heat capacity of a solid?”, the learning objective now becomes “to discover different methods” of
determining the specific heat capacity of that solid. We begin to focus our minds on possibilities instead of
being confined to the one correct answer.

Next, instead of insisting that students learn about the specific heat capacity of a given solid, if
teachers were to ask “What might you want to know about this solid?”, we change the learning objective

18 | P a g e
again. We begin to encourage students to make observations, ask questions, form hypotheses, and test
them. In essence, we deepen their inquiry skills. The focus is then on the process.

Finally, as in most research work, there will be no given object, no prescribed method, and students
have to learn to pose their own problems. In order to solve them, they will have to learn to become
productive problem solvers. At this stage, the focus is on people as individual learners. When we reach this
stage, we would have arrived at the pinnacle of learning through the PBL approach.

TABLE 1 Shift in question design, objective, and mindset

Question Objective Mindset
Find the specific heat capacity of a To define specific heat capacity of Product
solid: Amount of heat, Q = mc? solid
How do you find the specific heat
To discover different methods Possibilities
capacity of a solid?
What might you want to know about
To deepen inquiry skills Process
this solid?
No given object. No given method.
To develop problem solvers People
Find your own problem.

Problem Solving Approaches and Analysis

Problem Solving Encourages
Generalization
Reporter: Raffy Alabado

CONCEPTUALIZING GENERALIZATION

Generalization

Generalization is the activity of lifting and communicating reasoning to a level where the focus is
no longer on a particular instance, but rather on patterns and relationships of those particular instances.
Generalizing is the most authentic practice of the mathematics classroom. The process of generalizing a set
of particular instances, and justifying and formalizing the generalization is fundamental to mathematics.

Furthermore, some researchers argue that generalizing is natural and occurs without an instructor or
curriculum promoting it. Children have a natural inclination to notice and discuss regularities and patterns
in the number system, and that is the foundation for constructing, testing, and justifying generalizations.

Many traditional elementary mathematics concepts are platforms for generalizing, such as the
Commutative Property of Addition—the order in which two terms are added does not affect the sum. When
learning these concepts, students begin to explore generality. Educators must be able to identify these
opportunities and be aware of ways they can make use of students’ “natural powers” to generalize. Thus,
mathematics educators need to familiarize themselves with the various ways generalization is defined, so

19 | P a g e
that they can identify the phenomena of generalizing and support students’ as they engage in generalizing
activity.

Constructivist Conceptualizations of Generalization

Constructivist perspectives have shaped definitions of transfer, and thus have contributed to
researchers’ conceptualizations of generalization. As previously stated, at a theoretical level, the traditional
definitions of transfer presume knowledge is ontologically independent of perception. Conversely,
constructivist learning theorists account for individuals’ perceptions and view individuals’ cognitive
processes as intentional and generative.

Thus, constructivists reject the traditional definition of transfer because it disregards perception.
Embedded in a constructivist definition of generalization is the assumption that mathematical
understanding is dependent on an individuals’ perception.

Building on Piaget's theory of learning, constructivist research on generalization defines the

construct in terms of abstraction. By doing so, this perspective conceptualizes generalization as a process of
ideas becoming more abstract.

That is, generalization is the process of moving away from the concrete situation, or the process of
abstracting what is similar and salient in the structure of objects, relationships, or operations.

3 Ways to Boost Students’ Conceptual Thinking

1. Using categorizing, naming, and sorting activities

- In order to understand individual concepts, students need to grapple with examples, non-examples,
and attributes of a concept. We can ask students, “What is it like?” and invite them to describe the
key features.

2. Asking students to make connections

- As students engage with a unit, they explore a variety of contexts that illustrate concepts in action.
In a unit on the civil rights movement, for example, students may learn about the Montgomery bus
boycott and the Greensboro sit-ins. By drawing out connections between concepts such as protest
and rights, students can zoom out to see the big picture of their learning.

3. Planning for transfer

- Activities that invite students to form concepts and make connections between them prime the brain
for transfer—in each of these stages of conceptual thinking, we help students to reason abstractly
and identify the “So what?” of their learning. Once students have formed connections between

20 | P a g e
 concepts and articulated these as understandings, we can provide them with opportunities to apply
them to new situations. This allows students to see the relevance of their learning to both near and
far contexts.

Problem Solving Approaches and Analysis

Knowing when it is to
Intervene
Reporter: Jessica Valdez

Interventions: What's Working

Let Me Learn My Own Way
Jane A. G. Kise

Differentiating for Learning Styles

Jungian Learning Styles

• Jungian type theory, popularized through the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, describes
psychological preferences for gaining energy, taking in information, and making decisions,
all key processes in education.

Gaining Energy, Processing Information

• Key to learning are our preferences for gaining energy and for processing information (Kise, 2007;
Lawrence, 2009). People gain energy in one of two ways.

 Extraversion- are energized through action and interaction with

others.

 Introversion- are energized by reflection and solitude.

• Another set of Jungian preferences describes our starting point for gathering information.

 Sensing- first pay attention to facts, reality, and past experiences.

 Intuition- first pay attention to hunches, connections, and analogies.

• Note that boys and girls are equally likely to hold either preference; there is no gender difference
(Myers, McCaulley, Quenk, & Hammer, 1998).

21 | P a g e
Four Ways of Learning

• The four combinations of these preferences produce cognitive styles crucial to the learning process
(Kise, 2007; Lawrence, 2009):

 "Let me master it!" (Preferences: introversion and sensing). If these students aren't
comfortable with mathematics, they want certainty before proceeding.
 "Let me do something!" (Preferences: extraversion and sensing). These students learn
through movement, interaction, and hands-on manipulative.
 "Let me think!" (Preferences: introversion and intuition). These students process ideas
internally and pride themselves on unique or creative solutions.
 "Let me brainstorm!" (Preferences: extraversion and intuition). These students process their
ideas best out loud with partners or in groups, transfer new knowledge to new situations
easily, and prefer a variety of challenging tasks as opposed to practice work.

How Learning Preferences Apply to Teaching Math

• Practice

 Students who prefer intuition may resent repetitive practice once they understand the
concepts. Students who prefer sensing often enjoy such practice, yet they may not retain
procedural mastery unless they also grasp the underlying concept.

• Instruction and Feedback

 There were also major differences in when and how students needed feedback.
 "Let me do something!" students often blurt out question
 "Let me master it!" students may sink lower in their chairs as if to say, "Once again, I can't
understand this."
 "Let me think!" students often worked silently for long stretches of time, working with
numbers or staring at a problem.
 "Let me brainstorm!" students also confidently applied new knowledge, they often didn't
notice when their solutions actually contradicted their explanations; rather than wait for
them to ask for feedback, we needed to be ready with probing questions to help them rethink
what they "knew" to be true.

Numbers or Manipulatives?

• The sensing ("Let me master it!" and "Let me do something!") students grasped concepts through
concrete reality.
22 | P a g e
 • For many intuitive ("Let me think!" and "Let me brainstorm!") students, the manipulatives and
pictorial representations were unhelpful.

Student Mistakes

• "Let me think!" or "Let me brainstorm!" students' lack of attention to detail can result in mistakes
that hide their conceptual understanding.

A Sensible Approach

Jungian cognitive styles can help educators understand differences in how students approach
mathematical tasks. This framework can prove useful for creating equitable instruction during
interventions and for supporting students' core needs for feedback, representations, and practice
tasks that lead to mastery of mathematical concepts and processes.

23 | P a g e