Assignment #1 - Conversations with Teacher & Students

Team Members: Carly Orr, Donna Braaten & Hung Dang Le

September 24, 2010

Part I:  Student Interviews

One member of our group works in a tutoring centre.    A written survey that contained our top 5 questions was administered to about 20 students.  These students come 2-3 times a week for homework help and extra challenges.  They range from grades 6-12.    They come from both private and public schools, and different neighbourhoods in Vancouver.  The level of the students range from A to C+.   

From our surveys,  we noticed that the elementary school children gave mostly simple, and some one line answers.   The older students have more detailed answers, so our analysis is mainly based on these senior math students. 

Here is a snapshot of Student Responses:

1. Most students appreciate teachers who are patient, friendly, and care if you understand or not. Being entertaining or funny was a bonus.
2. Most students appreciate teachers who take the time to help OUTSIDE of class time. 
3. Most students (both the strong and weak ones) say they like Math, especially when they understand it, or when it is "fun". 
4. Most students want teachers who are WILLING to explain more when students need it, WILLING to offer help when kids are stuck after a lesson, WILLING to take more time to mark homework and assess more frequently to see if each student is "getting" it.
5. Most students will ask friends first when they are stuck, or postpone asking the teacher until after class, or until they have asked a friend?
6. What students find intimidating: word problems, big numbers, not understanding something, getting the "final answer" wrong (but did most of the steps right).

Based on the information gathered some reflections come to mind: 

• Math is fun (and motivating) only if you get it. Therefore as teachers, we must do whatever it takes, to help students "GET IT", both the process, and the final answer. Otherwise it is frustrating experience for both sides. 
• It is a fact that some students will need help outside of class. How far am I willing to go in extending office hours to help these students? 
• While peer-teaching is encouraged, we also want to ask: Why are students not likely to ask teachers first when they are stuck? Is it because they are inaccessible? or do teachers make the students feel "dumb"? or is the teacher not able to add any explanation that would make a difference? Maybe teachers need to make students feel safe about asking "dumb" questions. Maybe teachers need to offer more time after school. Maybe teachers need to try explaining things from another perspective (relationally?) when a students consistently still does not understand after repeated explanations? Am I willing to try another way of explaining an age-old concept?   

Part II  Teacher Interview

Ms. X is a math teacher at a high school in Vancouver not too far from UBC.  She has been teaching for about 7 years.  She was very willing to open her classroom for us to conduct an interview to provide insightful answers to our burning questions listed below:

1. How do you know whether or not students are "getting it" during class time?
2. What do you do if a student is too shy or embarrassed to ask for help?
3. How much time do you feel you need to spend on class preparation?
4. Do you have any methods, which help make a Math lesson more interesting?
5. When you mark your students’ tests, which aspect is more important: the correct number (as an answer) or the method used?

Although all of her responses were quite helpful, questions 4 and 5 revealed some particularly strong insights focusing on student engagement and assessment.

In order to make her classes more interesting, Ms. X referred to the field of “eductainment”.  She often uses humour in the classroom to keep the students engaged while also introducing them to new concepts.  Specific examples of this were as simple as putting as putting on “nerd” glasses to introducing new shapes by making the students think about what it could possibly mean (example below).  Many such pictures and graphs were placed around the classroom for the students to view. 

Ms. X also had strong opinions when it comes to assessment.  She believes that the answer as well as the approach are necessary.  More importantly, she believes in assessment for learning and not assessment of learning.  She wants to keep the student engaged and for them to remain interested.  When students start to see signs of success, it keeps them engaged.  For regular assignments, she uses a 100 – 75 – 50 – 0 scale.  If a student does not like their grade on an assignment, they may resubmit.  Tests are different and cannot be redone.   In summary, Ms. X believes teachers are put into an arbitrator role instead of coach.  She believes a student should have every opportunity to improve during the assignments with the test being the final “game”.

Lastly, Ms. X provided us with a view useful links that we can use in the classroom. In particular, Ms. X. often uses the manipulatives available on line from the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives – http://nlvm.usu.edu/ .  She also uses a popular blog with the students, FAILBlog - http://failblog.org/ and asks students to find examples of math being misused.