Response to John Mason's Article: Questioning in Math Education

1. Do Mason's ideas might connect with inquiry-based learning in secondary school mathematics? (Why or why not?)

From reading through the article, I do think that Mason's ideas on math teaching can connect with inquiry-based learning in secondary school mathematics. Because high schools can be quite challenging and even competitive for some students as they are wanting to get through each grade and to be able to graduate on time, students can often feel pressured into knowing everything that's being asked, or feel overwhelmed with the expectations from their math teachers. With Mason's teaching strategies, teachers are not seen as an authoritative figure that's standing in front of the classroom. Rather, they are seen as someone who really value the opinions and questions of students, who care for student learning, and who respect students without having them to feel excluded of being incapable to think beyond their abilities or doubt. These forms of math teaching allow students to think and inquire for themselves while actively collaborating with their teachers and classmates.


2. How might Mason's ideas about questions in math class be incorporated into your unit planning for your long practicum?

Mason's ideas about questions in math class can be incorporated into my unit planning through giving students more time to ask questions continuously through the lesson. If I give a word problem during my lesson that students can work on to reinforce the content, I can ask students to work on their own first, then pool their answers together regardless if they are right or wrong, instead of telling them the answer right away or instead of telling them that these are wrong answers. I can then work through the problem step by step, so students can keep track of what they did and compare it with my solution (as if I were also a student). I can also ask the students to come up to the board and ask them to solve it step by step. Even if we made a mistake, we will know that it's okay and so we try again to find the right answer, to become "stuck then unstuck" (Mason) allows students to see that there are possibilities to get to the right answer from where they are.

Reflection on Dave Hewitt's Video

Our class watched two parts of the video that focuses on Mr. Hewitt's teaching strategies on mathematics for elementary and middle school children. The video was very inspiring as it allowed me to think of some the practical teaching methods that I could incorporate into my classrooms. From the video, I really admired the various scaffolding techniques that Mr. Hewitt used in bringing movement, sound, wait time, repetition, and discussions into his teaching method. I could see that students were more engaged from implementing this strategy. I also noticed that Mr. Hewitt didn't speak much or jump in right away when asked a question, but rather he let students to think through the problem and work out themselves, little by little, until they get the right answer. Even though his presence and authority is still in the room, it seemed as if he gained students' respect and trust in creating a more comfortable environment for students' learning, regardless if they made a mistake or not. I had learned a lot from Mr. Hewitt's teaching strategies, and I need to keep them in mind when I teach math classes in the future!

Reflection on Micro-teaching 2

For our second micro-teaching this Monday, Etienne, Deeya and I were presenting our lesson on the Sine Law. I reflect that our teaching topic was interesting, and the materials were a definite bonus to help students visualize. However, the lesson was a bit rushed. I think the reason is that we had three people in the team, with each presents a different sub-topic of the Sine Law, there were a lot of information that we would like to cover for each case. Having 3-4 students per team and let them learn in less than 3 minutes might not have been enough before rotating them and starting on a new sub-lesson. I found that our discussions were cut short due to lack of time, even though there were still a few more ideas to discuss. Furthermore, we should have had a more well-rounded closing/conclusion before ending the lesson.