Think to high school and the questions that bounced around the room.  I can imagine most started with the teacher asking a question and then a student would answer.  Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.  Oh, then throw in a few “Whys?” by the teacher, and maybe a time for reversals, student questions and teacher answers.  The majority of my classroom experiences were dictated by this ping-pong game, head turning from front to side, with the teacher-student-teacher-student pattern. Boring. Dull. NOT beautiful.

Teacher: “What is one plus one?”

Student X: “Two”

Teacher: “Great, now what is two plus one?”

Student Y: “Three”

Teacher: “Wonderful, Now does anyone have any questions?”

You: “When is this over?”

Yes, exactly, I was just wondering that too because honestly how are students supposed to see the beauty of mathematics when every lesson is this process of questioning that doesn’t spark any interesting conversations nor any of the real life connections that serve to display the beauty of math in action.

So what is the solution?

Well honestly, classrooms aren’t quite like the above scenario anymore.  Teaching is an evolving profession and great discussions do develop, but usually teachers still are the ones to start the questioning. Ponder with me for a moment, what if students asked the questions, and what if the entire lesson developed from those questions. Chaos? Or maybe ingenuity.

Certainly, there comes a deal of planning before this, and you’d need to design a task where students ask the “right” questions because a student isn’t going to ask, “How do I differentiate this?” without any prior experience on the subject. Still, the idea to take mathematics learning away from a teacher-student questioning pattern is a marvelous concept that is radically transforming classrooms.  With that may I introduce another math-blogger-teacher who came up with a genius idea of implementing this.

May I present to you Dan Meyer (who has a blog that you can check out for great math-teaching insight; insight that will take you further than my limited experience can ever bring).  What I want to highlight here is Meyer’s project of presenting images/videos to students, and asking them to come up with their own questions.  101 Questions is a group effort of uploaded photos and the “First question that comes to your mind.” With this teachers (or anyone) can log in and see what photos are most successful in eliciting great math lessons.

The students ask the questions.  It is revolutionary and empowering and dare I say, beautiful? Beauty not in regards to the math this time, but beauty in allowing students to see that they have an active roll in answering their own math questions – the ability to show students that mathematics helps them solve their own questions.  That to me is beautiful.

 

As a side note, Dan Meyer is coming to Queens College next month.  Yes, I am doing a little jig in anxious anticipation to hear his Perplexity Session Talk.