Cheng, 1

Brian Cheng

Warwick

Writ 109ED

Due November 02, 2020

Problem Posing Mathematics

During my time as a mathematics major, I decided to add an education minor, since I

wanted to teach high school mathematics. The minor I chose was specifically the Science and

Mathematics Education minor, and it focuses on teaching science or mathematics at the middle

and high school level. One of the series of courses that I had to take was ED 134/135. This class

is designed for prospective math students to have a chance to really think and see how students

use what they have learned and incorporate it into real world situations. We also saw how the

teachers presented these investigations and how they navigated their classroom which was

different compared to a traditional classroom. This series of classes really opened my eyes to

how problem-posing education can stimulate learning and provide a safe environment for

students to express their ideas.

A major part of the course was to watch videos of elementary school teachers applying

problem-posing education to help their students understand these investigations and try to

understand why this type of education is superior to the traditional banking method. An example

of such an investigation would be the subway sandwich problem. The students had to figure out

how groups of 3, 4, and 5 students would split 2, 3, and 4 sandwiches respectively. Additionally,

they had to figure out which group had the most sandwiches. This particular question dealt with

the application of fractions, but they were not told this information beforehand. In fact, the

teacher intentionally left it out to try and have the students figure out how they should approach
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the question. This type of “education consists in actions of cognition, not transferrals of

information” (Freire, 15). By not giving the students a particular path to follow, the teacher gives

them an opportunity to discover their own method of approach. When students are given this

chance to apply what they know, it becomes easier for them to learn from the experience, as well

as understand why certain problems require certain techniques to solve them. After the students

came up with solutions and discussed it as an entire class, the teacher saw that different students

used different methods to solve the problem. Some figured out the fraction of sandwiches that

each student would get in each group and deduced the group of 5 students had the most

sandwich. Others used proportional reasoning and figured out that if all of the groups were

scaled up to have 12 sandwiches, then the first group would have 18 students for 12 sandwiches,

the second group would have 16 students for 12 sandwiches, and the final group would have 15

students for 12 sandwiches. Therefore, the last group would have more sandwich. Both solutions

have different approaches to them and use different techniques; however, they all lead to the

same result.

The traditional banking method, which relies on students memorizing facts without

thinking about why they are true or how they can be used, would not have given the students the

same experience. One of the main issues of the banking method is that it is very rigid; particular

procedures had to be followed. This gives students the impression that there is only one way to

solve these particular problems. Had the teacher just told the students to approach this question

by thinking about fractions, the students would have had a narrower mind-set when solving,

which would have inhibited their ability to see the different ways to solve the problem. The

students also would not discover for themselves why they were able to use fractions or
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proportions; instead, they would only memorize that for these types of questions, they should

only use fractions to solve them.

Another way that the teachers implement problem-posing education is by forming small

groups for students to discuss in. Every student has their own learning style, strengths, and

weaknesses. Therefore, students often have different ideas on how to approach certain obstacles.

By forming these groups, the teachers give students an opportunity not only to share information

with one another, but to also learn from each other’s strengths and mistakes. These groups also

help students bounce ideas off of one another, which often helps them make progress. While the

students gather in their groups, he/she is observing and evaluating every group. When students

need help, the teacher is very careful about how he/she phrase his/her replies; he/she does not

want to just hand off information and solutions to the students and be done with the day; rather,

the teacher is there to “question, promt, and cue their thinking” (Smith, 11). By asking questions,

teachers incorporate themselves into discussion not as an authoritative figure, but as a fellow

investigator. This can help students feel safer to discuss their ideas in this more casual space.

Asking questions also forces students to think about solutions to those questions, rather than just

giving information to them. Students tend to accept information from teachers when it is

presented to them without considering why or how it works, which in turn, prevents them from

learning. After the students are given time to discuss amongst each other, they will be given

poster paper to write up their solutions. As the teacher gathers the entire class together for a final

discussion, some of these posters will ultimately be chosen to be presented in front of the entire

class. This not only gives a chance for students to show their findings, but it also gives them a

little bit of encouragement and emotional acknowledgments from their peers and the teachers.

The poster presentations also allow students to experience different techniques and strategies that
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their peers may have used when solving a particular problem, which allows students to learn

even more from each other.

As we continued watching these teachers at work, we noticed that each of them switches

their teaching style whenever they help each of the individual groups. The teachers also provide

their students with a variety of tools to aid their investigations. Watching them helped us

“recognize each classroom as different [and] that strategies must constantly be changed,

invented, reconceptualized” (hooks, 6) such that the different students can understand the

material. We learned that some students learn best when they have a visual to guide them.

Therefore, teachers give them paper and pencils so that they can draw out graphs or pictures to

help them visualize particular situations. Students who like crunching numbers and solving

equations also benefit from having a piece of paper to write their solutions on. Some students

prefer a more hands-on approach to learning, so they are provided items called manipulatives.

These are blocks of wood or plastic that have particular lengths and can be pieced together like

legos to form boxes or to represent a fraction. These manipulatives are great for young students

who have trouble conceptualizing fractions or proportions and also allow them to easily build

and compare different 3D objects. By being flexible and giving students different resources

based on their strengths, the teachers maximized their students' learning potential and created an

environment where everyone can do their best, not just the smartest students.

By observing these teachers, we learned how problem posing education helps create a

safe learning environment where all of the students can contribute to the classroom.

Additionally, we saw how giving different students different resources helped everyone learn,

regardless of their past mathematical experiences. Nowadays, with the advancements in

technology, we can even use online calculators like Desmos or computer generated charts to
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further aid students. These series of courses have shown us an effective way to teach

mathematics, and the techniques we learned will help us develop our own teaching style to help

the future generation of students.

Works Cited

Freire, Paolo. ​Pedagogy of the Oppressed​. Bloomsbury, 2014

hooks, bell. “Introduction: Teaching to Transgress.” ​Teaching to transgress.​ Routledge, 1994,

pp.1-12

Smith, Dominique, Douglas Fisher, and Nancy Frey. “Relationships and Meaningful Instruction:

The Foundations of Restorative Practices.” ​Better than Carrots or Sticks: Restorative

Practices for Positive Classroom Management.​ ASCD, 2015, pp.21-51