Fostering Mathematical Mindsets

Description of the workshop

Naira Trolle
At the time of socializing the workshop, the primary education teachers were asked an
elementary question: Do you consider that Mathematical Mindset is fixed or growth?
This was a question where participants were to write their answers on paper and then
share and discuss their answers at the end of the workshop. Similarly, I made a brief
review on the main topic of the course and gave a brief introduction on Jo Boaler and
her book.

At the beginning of the presentation, the professors were interested because in most of
their classes the students have a visible stress towards mathematics and the resolution
of mathematical procedures. The first point of discussion was the fact that Low
Achieving students are not less knowledgeable than High Achieving students. Mr.
Foxwell considers that low achievers simply do not put in an extra effort to compensate
for their failures in mathematics, for their part, the rest of the teachers agreed that low
achievers have different pathways and that therefore our duty as teachers is to work on
the basis of to those pathways to strengthen them and bring them to a higher level of
understanding.

In the consecutive points the teachers agreed with what was presented. At the time of
socializing the assessment strategies, teachers were asked to select the one they liked
the most and to explain how they would work with their students applying it. the second
node of discussion was generated regarding the use of the fingers to solve
mathematical problems. The teachers of the initial grades agreed as this is a strategy
that allows children to relate the sense of touch with mathematics as well as create
pathways that facilitate quick responses. For their part, the teachers of the upper grades
of primary school disagreed since for them it is necessary for children to become
independent from the use of tactile shortcuts and perform operations mentally.

in the same way, teachers were invited to select one of the explained strategies and
make an example of how they would explain a class using said strategy.
Next, I shared my thoughts on how this course will improve my math class. Then each
teacher shared their personal reflections and finally, teachers were asked to share their
responses to the question asked at the beginning of class. Most of the participants
answered that they have a Growth mindset, however they decided to change their
answers after doing an introspection on their teaching methods.

The workshop was well received by the teachers, since according to them there are
things that they did not take into consideration, such as the realization of group activities
where fairness enhances mathematical performance, as well as the fact that they
carried out activities automatically and they did not know the proper names of the
activities.