Tierney Kennedy – Professional Development

Problem Solving Strategies

1. Ask it first - give exploratory task or question for students to explore problem
2. Work backwards - give them the answer and kids work out why
3. Ask them to find a pattern - give multiple questions and try to find out what is the same
4. Put the unknown in the middle 28 + something = 52 (open middled)
5. Ask what if questions to vary the scenario

Finger activity - make 8 fingers with a partner - add constraints as you go

Balance the cognitive load - make the thinking tricky or the numbers trickery - not both - do not assess
fluency and problem solving in the same task

Confidence develops from tricky questions - getting an easy question wrong makes you own the blame -
getting a tricky question wrong makes you blame the question, not yourself

Sticky notes for amount of times they can come ask for help

Enabling prompts:

❖ Give them the answer to prove right

❖ Wrong to prove wrong
❖ Two truths and a lie
❖ Draw something specific
❖ Something physical
❖ Swap a number
❖ Read aloud to a friend

Curios Math Problems:

Http://www.maths.uq.edu.au/mrb/

Model problem solving - We are their model - Kids can design problems for you!!

Principles

❖ Maths without challenge is arithmetic

❖ If they already know it, it’s not problem solving
❖ Challenge should be challenging
❖ Value what we value
❖ Confidence improves with challenge
❖ We are their model for maths
❖ Curiosity drives development
❖ Reasoning is more than explaining
❖ If you cannot explain what you’re looking for, you can’t assess it.