The Adult Numeracy Network is looking to sponsor two adult education practitioner research projects.
What are some questions you'd like to learn more about? Share your suggestions!
If interested, please check out our page! If you have any questions, contact me at annpractitionerproject@gmail.com.
Comments
Hi Rebecca,
There's a crew on Twitter who have been brainstorming math and adult education research questions. There have been a lot of interesting ones shared. Here are a few:
@adelliger: How do #Adultedu Ss develop study skills to be successful in future math courses?
@mtrushkowsky: What impact does having students write reflections after each class have on their mindset? What prompts would you give them?
@Rivera_Con: How does classroom culture change if I never confirm a student's answer?
@PatriciaHelmuth: Do students need to develop number concept proficiency before they can understand functions?
And a link to the rest.
Eric
These are great!!
I look forward to reading more ideas as they come in!
I'd like to determine where adult education teachers struggle with math. Where are they comfortable and where do they struggle? What are the common concerns that teachers have when it comes to math.
Kathy
What effect does changing the problems I usually use into numberless word problems have on my students' problem solving skills?
[Strategy 2 explains numberless word problems… "When all the information is provided to you, it’s easy to glance at the numbers, and perhaps key words, and jump to conclusions. Numberless problems force you to make sense of the problem before solving it. With this strategy, ask students for a solution pathway based on the information without the distracting numbers. Only after they’ve made sense of it do you plug the numbers in and the students solve the problem."]
What effect does removing the question from the problems I usually use have on my students ability to conceptualize mathematical situations?
For example, note the problem below posed at Math Memos that does not have a specific question that students have to answer. Rather, they are invited to ask their own questions:
Last Saturday, three sisters mowed the lawn in their backyard. Solange starts the mower first and completes 1/3 of the lawn. Then Jane takes over and mows exactly 1/4 of the grass. Denise then finishes off the last 700 square feet of the yard.
1. What do you notice?
2. What questions do you have?
Could practical math lessons be designed in a game format to facilitate more practice & fluency & number sense?
Can you clarify for me what you intend when you say "game format"? When I read that I think of two aspects...
1. Gamification: This is the process of taking any procedure, practice or task and creating a game to increase motivation, frequency and energy put into those tasks. For instance, McDonalds long ago found the value in changing the mundane act of buying a drink into a game type event that crossed Bingo and Monopoly into drink and then later food purchases...sales increased. Credit card companies and many others Gamify activities all the time now. Any classroom function can be gamified and some people have had some success. Typically, successes are not lasting however so they are only effective for short spurts. Others have experimented with shifting the game design around every once and awhile and that seems to extend how long the gamification is efficient, but there still is not the lasting effect people might hope for. Some of the best uses of Gamification have been in short (one month or two) experiences that happen at random times during the year.
2. Using games to help learners practice and become more fluent in math: I am an avid table top and digital gamer and firmly believe that most any gaming experience can help learners increase math skills. Gaming has many categories and matching the right type of game to the individual takes much game study. When done well, learners take game play to a level of a math laboratory. "What if I take this approach ... how will that change the game data or outcome?" "If we alter the rules this way...how does that change the resources each player gains each turn or throughout the game?" "Is there data from our game play to determine what 'The Best' strategy is and how can we prove this is the best?". The power of using game play as a learning environment can not be adequately expressed nor do I believe there has been enough study, discussion and play in this area yet. James Gee started many discussions with his research around the impact of video games on learning and many others have built on that work. Peggy Sheehy and Lucas Gillispie have had great successes with using World of Warcraft game play to teach English for instance. Sadly, the idea of using Tabletop game like board games, card games, dice game, role playing games, tactical miniature games and other forms of face to face gaming has not been studied or implemented anywhere near enough.
Did your inquiry lean more to either of these interpretations or were you thinking of something different?