Logical Thinkers

I will admit I am no maths buff and maybe there is an answer out there already for what I am trying to find out.

Thursday for me, means rotation day (here) where I teach a 30 minute maths lesson to all five classes in our team. As it is mixed ability and quite short, I have decided to do hands on maths that can be differentiated for all. Also I like that I can incorporate our Value this term which is Relationships and our Disposition which is Team Player into the mix with a lot of buddy and team work.

Today we looked at a problem on Nrich called Nim- 7.

While the children were playing and trying to work out strategies I sat back and listened to their conversations about the game. What surprised me the most were the children who solved it and their logical reasoning behind their answer. During our set maths lessons, I take the more able group of year 3/4’s for maths so I naturally assumed they would be the first to come up with  an answer  and be able to articulate their reasoning’s by modelling their outcomes. However, in nearly all the five classes this didn’t happen.

It was actually other children who found a solution faster. When asked a ‘What if’ question they were also able to explain the answer using what they already knew. This got me thinking about the way we teach maths. I’m not a big fan of grouping and while teaching these maths groups it reminds me why I love the diversity of different learners in a class room.

I think sometimes we miss opportunities other students can give us when we ‘box’ all the same types of learners into one class. We are inclined to think because someone knows their ‘numbers’ (and in our case it is mainly just about addition and subtraction) they are the better mathematicians.

But I also wondered if students who are more critical or logical thinkers can be disadvantaged here.  When students think critically in mathematics, they make reasoned decisions or judgments about what to do and think. In other words, students consider the criteria or grounds for a thoughtful decision and do not simply guess or apply a rule without assessing its relevance.

I began to wonder if my more able students maybe have a tendency to just apply the rule.

I don’t really know if all my muddle thinking makes sense or has any validity but today did make me think. Why was it that a lot of my students who would be in the lower groupings of our maths could see the answer to a problem a lot faster than my more able? Maybe because it was more hands on and they could visualise the answer?