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Jo Boaler's video on student inquiry included many key ideas that I think will be the foundations for our teaching methods. This idea of multi-dimensional learning being our goal is something I think many classrooms have adopted or are beginning to shift towards already. My biggest concern, which was shared by members in my breakout room, is that, coming from a one-dimensional educational background myself, I may not be able to keep up with all the ideas and methods that my students will come up with. The way I'm thinking about it now, I will constantly be needing to read up on math, not just to increase my knowledge for myself, but so that I can be better at my job. I would absolutely love to do that, but I'm concerned it's not a sustainable thing to do.
This thinking led me to wonder if it's better to introduce a topic in class briefly before jumping into class activities, or, like Jo Boaler suggested, should we be letting the students explore the topic themselves first by giving them activities that encourage thinking about the topic and reconvene at the end to discuss the various approaches? Giving the introduction at the beginning narrows their scope, which would help me focus on questions that may arise but limits the students to approaches that make sense to me and may not line up with their thinking. On the other hand, letting them think it through without my influence would certainly allow them freedom, but would then make it difficult for me to address every single path that arose. Other concerns raised by my colleagues in the breakout room were related to student participation. The group we saw in the video example of multi-dimensional learning was eager and ready to participate. What happens when there are students who are too shy or lack the self-confidence to participate? How do we encourage them to take part without singling them out?
Great thinking about this topic! I like your idea of focusing the scope of student discussion through some teaching at the beginnning, and in fact, I believe that is what had happened in the multidimensional classroom example shown in the film. There is a delicate balance between encouraging student exploration and leaving them too much to their own devices, where they might flounder. The question of encouraging participation in a large group when some people are quieter or less confident than others is a tricky one. I really think that smaller group work is a more effective way -- but building a sense of community in the class can help.
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