{"id":8897,"date":"2023-10-24T08:16:57","date_gmt":"2023-10-23T21:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/ssc\/?post_type=article&p=8897"},"modified":"2023-10-24T10:29:30","modified_gmt":"2023-10-23T23:29:30","slug":"shaping-life-ready-problem-solvers","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/ssc\/article\/shaping-life-ready-problem-solvers\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaping life-ready problem solvers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During the introduction to our 2023 Action Research Project in February, we were presented with an opportunity to focus on one of our tricky problems of practice<\/em>. In collaboration with Matthew Mountford, the Dean of Gifted Education, we decided to investigate our Gioia House students’ approach to solving problems in Maths, an area where we have persistently struggled to build their competence and confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the course of our early research and data-gathering, it became noticeable that students required more continual explicit teaching of new and varied problem-solving strategies to build their mathematical toolkit and to become more agile in their approach to solving complex mathematical problems. They also needed more time to ponder and play around with problem-solving strategies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To address these challenges, we searched the recent literature and selected a range of practices we thought would apply well to our context. Based on both the quantitative and qualitative data gathered, we found Number Talks<\/em> to be one of our most impactful strategies. Number Talks provide a structured method to help students build number sense and problem-solving skills by working collaboratively with their peers to talk through and mentally find solutions to number problems. To extend this practice, students were also encouraged to create illustrations of the strategies they used to come to a solution. A benefit of this approach is that it reminds students of the multiple methods that can be used to arrive at a solution and in so doing develops their confidence and agility in tackling complex problems. The smaller group activities also give less confident students the opportunity to take risks and test their ideas with their peers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the importance of mathematical literacy identified in the PISA 2018 Mathematics Framework as helping individuals to ‘make the well-founded judgements and decisions needed by constructive, engaged and reflective citizens’, we will continue in our quest to prepare students for the challenges they\u2019ll face after school by implementing evidence-based practices to build their competence and confidence in solving mathematical problems.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ann Milicic
Leonie McLaren
Matthew Mountford<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the introduction to our 2023 Action Research Project in February, we were presented with an opportunity to focus on one of our tricky problems of practice. In collaboration with Matthew Mountford, the Dean of Gifted Education, we decided to investigate our Gioia House students’ approach to solving problems in Maths, an area where we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":8898,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","article_category":[5],"article_tag":[],"class_list":["post-8897","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","article_category-gioia-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/ssc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/8897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/ssc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/ssc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/ssc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8897"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/ssc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/ssc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"article_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/ssc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_category?post=8897"},{"taxonomy":"article_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/ssc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_tag?post=8897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}