When he teaches math classes, Tom Fisher wants students to feel confused. At the very least, he wants them to feel that way from time to time.
A predominantly administrator, Fisher still teaches Honors Algebra at Breakwater, the K-8-8th independent school in Portland, Maine.
For Fisher, mixing mathematics and play is important.
According to Fisher, it is not the traditional way of teaching subjects. In many cases, mathematics teachers present information to students through lectures and worksheets, forcing learners to decipher the context and usefulness themselves.
However, for Fisher, there is a reason to wonder if students in later grades often study mathematics. That’s because when instructions are devised for the test, they are not sensitive to whether the knowledge they convey will last longer, says Fisher. Worse, he argues that such a heavy approach prevents students from developing tolerance for confusion by grasping the issues themselves. It takes students of the valuable experience of conquering problems that seem impossible at first.
So in class, Fisher tries to focus on developing a sense of play. He found it helpful in focusing on real-world examples. These examples are cluttered and can cause temporary confusion. “Everything is great and not pretty,” Fisher says.
For example, recently, when it was time to build lessons about fractions, Fisher came up with comparisons for students.
One child in his class was to compare the person with the most toes in history to the person with the least toes.
Another compared the length of the video.
Still another looked at the temperature over a few days.
Fisher asked me to consider why these questions were easier or harder to grasp. And I discovered that if one number is twice the other, it was simple due to the obvious relationship, but when comparing lengths of 403 seconds. Videos of 391 people – or videos comparing the coldest days of the month to the warmest days – it was even more harsh. The findings capture the characteristics of the relationship between numbers and how they are used, Fisher says.
What made the lesson work was that students chose what they would compare to, Fisher said. It gave them a sense of agency and motivated them to tackle complex issues.
This is an approach that some researchers believe is missing too often from the classroom. When it comes to mathematics, they argue, there is not enough emphasis on the play. However, due to concerns about these fields, especially the development of students after the pandemic, can play focus on mathematics learning?
Learn the playbook
Doug Clements, a professor at the University of Denver, Colorado, says there is a common false dichotomy between mathematics and play. Even among researchers, this could lead to a partisan commitment of “bulimia” on either side, he added. It’s unfortunate because research studies how they are deeply connected, Clements says. for example, the study We have shown that the best “social dramatic play” in which children assume roles and interact with rules arises in classrooms with both mathematics and literacy curricula. Therefore, some intentional teaching time and play appear to be the most powerful in supporting learning, Clements adds.
The general usefulness of play for learning is well established, especially in younger ages. For example, play with early education Enhancement Development of social emotional skills and critical thinking. Some studies suggest that it has the ability Reduce socioeconomic inequality.
But what does play mean?
For researchers, “play” occurs when students control what they are doing. It’s flexible, willing to choose, yes, fun.
But that doesn’t mean it’s chaotic.
Just like learning sports, language and music, structured practice is really important for mathematics, Barbara Oakley, a well-known engineering professor at the University of Auckland, wrote in an email to Edlage. As long as it is based on the pathways of automatic mathematical knowledge in the student’s brain, more fun will be helpful. But at the same time, emphasizing “fun” in mathematics can be harmful if you ignore structured practices. “The problem is, if not done properly, the ‘fun’ of mathematics is equivalent to teaching a child to play the guitar by teaching him to play the air guitar. In other words, it’s fun! It’s easy! But it’s going through all the movements without actually teaching me how to play the guitar,” she added.
So, part of the goal is to build these skills. To that end, researchers also see usefulness in some unstructured times.
The key elements are free play andGuided play“There’s a direction from instructors. The National Association of Early Childhood Education has catalogued a series of plays, from “free play” in which students play without direction to classroom instruction. According to researchers like Clements at the University of Colorado in Denver, various forms of play could be free. Essentially, it’s important that there are both guided sequential developments where students are introduced to new mathematical concepts, and free plays that allow students to try out those concepts, Clements says.
How will it be translated into the classroom? In the early education Clements specializes in, he usually builds intentional lessons and sets up the classroom so that students bump into mathematics every turn while playing. It means preparing your classroom with labels, blocks and other spatial and mathematical items. But another way is to teach small groups of students the game, then loosen them, says Clements. The minds of this kind of student will give them more ideas. The goal is for students to voluntarily recognize mathematics concepts in the world. Once, her mother returned and her preschool child noticed that the passage they were running down was made of hexagon, Clements said.
However, Clements said thoughtful classroom approaches that combine play and instruction are rare. Instead, many schools have either too little math instruction for their students or too little play.
Others think that they can overemphasize mathematics play and send unintended messages.
Another word for fun?
These days, almost all math curricula in early childhood and elementary schools include games, usually board and dice games, says Yvonne Liu-Constant, a practitioner specialist at Project Zero. Early on in student progress, she says there are also plenty of items for students to physically handle, such as cubs and colorful plastic bears that students use countless times. It’s the result of pushes over the past decades to make math more playful, she says.
When Liu-Constant began teaching, she was all about it.
But lately, she thinks it’s not a bit misguided. problem? Over the years, her continuing to hit the walls with mathematics instruction gradually began with Liu-Constant. In the end, she denounced it on a hidden message. When you focus on making math “fun,” you almost imply that math is not yet fun, says Liu-Constant. We never said that about art, she adds. The assumption is that art is inherently interesting. And for those who love mathematics, it already seems like art, she says.
It’s important that the sense of mathematics play extends beyond just activities and games, she says. It must be broader. That’s how she and her brother, a Taiwanese engineer. He can absorb math and spend all his time thinking about numbers, says Liu-Constant.
So, recently working with Project Zero’s Playgogy of Play, Liu-Constant, a Harvard research department that relies on a “school-wide approach” to learning, reconstructs play as mere learning strategies. I was about to try. An activity that teachers need to find time.
It’s not about trying to use the game as an apology to teach mathematics, she says, but about revealing the fun of mathematics.
A playful piece for those in the classroom.
I’m looking for a pattern
Back in Maine, Fisher insists that his approach is impactful.
Fisher’s School, Breakwater, is small, with class sizes of around 180 students and around 15 students. Naturally, this exerts a different pressure on teachers than in public schools. According to Fisher, Breakwater stopped standardized testing several years ago. They still rely on state standards, but do not regularly carry out evaluations from NWEA, a widely used evaluation company affiliated with the K-12 textbook publisher HMH. Fisher admits that this makes it difficult to compare the long-term impact of this approach with alternatives such as local public schools. Not everyone in school uses this approach.
However, Fisher using this approach notices the difference.
Ultimately, Fisher finds that a playful approach makes math more memorable and the lessons more sticky. He teaches students to come up with strategies to implement mathematics, he says. In his eyes, thoughtful play enhances mathematics teaching.
It’s difficult for people to imagine what play will look like, especially with older grades, he says. However, the crucial component is self-directed. It can happen in a small way. Fisher says it’s as easy as letting students discover concepts rather than explaining them. It’s about giving students some kind of agency, he adds.
