Who's Doing The Learning? (Therefore, Who Should Be Doing the Work?)

Like many teachers, my first years of teaching were exhausting! It's a tough profession, and I could see why it had such high, within-the-first-five-years, drop-out rate.

At the beginning of, I believe, my third year, I enrolled in a Fred Jones professional development course (Positive Classroom Management). He has a number of "Fredisms" to describe education and the bedrock of his system, one of which is really resonating with me this year - 

"There is no reason a teacher should work him/herself to death while the students sit back and watch. Effective teachers work the students to death while they sit back and watch."

Now, in no way am I advocating anyone "working to death;" however, think about it. I know the math, they don't. They're doing the learning, so they are the ones who should be doing the work (and getting tired :-). This year, teaching via the Harkness Method, this is exactly what is happening.

In my classroom, students are:

1) solving math problems (sometimes struggling)

2) presenting their solutions on the board

3) sometimes leading the discussions (made more difficult due to English being their second language)

4) answering my questions (and other students') as to how to do something

In other words, they are often the ones doing the doing; I'm the one "sitting back and watching." Learning requires involvement, the crux of the Harkness Method. In my classroom, the students are involved each and every day.

Is my job "easy?" No way. I'm constantly engaged/focused during class to understand all their different methods. (I'm learning the math so much more deeply.) As I mentioned in my last post, I'm having to relearn my profession, to ask high quality questions instead of providing immediate answers (and I have a long way to go). My job is different, focused so much more on their learning, and, given my experience with the Harkness Method thus far, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Questions. It's All About the Questions

The basis of a discussion-based classroom, is, of course, discussion. This requires good questions in two areas: 1) questions to be solved and 2) questions to be asked to complement, facilitate, and address difficulties.

After three months of using Phillips Exeter's math materials, I will readily admit that I am quite impressed with the level, the depth, of their questions. The vast majority of what I read when it comes to improving our math education is the need for more problem solving, more discovery learning, a greater focus on the richness of mathematics as a whole. Exeter's materials do all of these. I'm so appreciating questions that don't have whole number solutions (why do textbooks insist on always have "perfect" answers?), that spiral through topics, that lead students to derive formulas, and that often require knowing more than one mathematical idea to solve. This is, after all, what mathematics is like in the real world.

(I read somewhere that it took the Exeter faculty eight years to create their textbook! I'm humbled by such an effort.)

So, I have good questions to be solved. Now, as the teacher/guide/facilitator, the issue is asking good questions. This is definitely an area in which I need work. I'm so used to wanting to answer questions to keep things moving that I'm not nearly as good at what's really important - asking questions to guide in decision making, further challenge, or deepen learning. Students need to think and I need to help make that happen.

Area 1, good. Area 2, in process.