Challenges of Teaching and Learning Measurement
The article “ Getting Beyond the Guess ” by Murphy, Terrizzi and Cormas (2012) focuses on the various challenges observed in teaching and learning of probability. The challenge is seen to affect both the children and adults alike. The population is seen to have inflated the chances of winning a lottery where the individuals are seen to largely participate in guesswork. This has been a practice that mathematics teachers have failed to alleviate. Instead of ensuring clear understanding of the concept, they are instead taught to guess the outcomes. There are numerous problems associated with the teaching environment where lack of focus on the students procession to a significant answer in probability results in lack of understanding (Murphy, Terrizzi & Cormas, 2012). The teachers have created a learning environment that does not apply the common core standards for mathematical practice. Using these standards teachers can improve teaching outcomes not only in the probability concept but also in other areas of mathematics.
Teaching and Learning Strategy
The article identifies the use of active learning in teaching probability to students. This is where students are set into groups to discuss and use of physical objects to understand the concept of probability and the prediction-outcome relationship. As evidenced in the article, the ability of a student to construct viable arguments for their prediction is proof of understanding the concept. This may be used by teachers seeking to measure the learning progress of the students (Murphy, Terrizzi & Cormas, 2012). The researchers would first teach the students using a spinner divided into different slices of color to test probability predictions. The results of this lesson would then be used in testing the ability of the students to use them in a similar probability test of colored tokens in a brown paper bag. The teaching and learning strategy in this case involves the active practice of the students in learning the relationship of prediction and outcome. The use of teaching tools such as the spinner and the colored tokens enable the
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CCSS MP Applied to the Teaching and Learning Strategy
The common core standards for mathematical practice are used in the teaching and learning strategy employed in the above mentioned article. In this case, CCSS MP1 is employed as the students make sense of the problems and persevere to solve them (Common Core State Standards Initiatives, 2016). The students understand the similarity between past probability problems and hence are aware of how the problem at hand has been altered. The students are seen to make conjectures of the solution in its form and meaning and do not just jump into solving the problem. Instead they are seen to plan a clear pathway to arrive at the solutions. The CCSS MP2 is also employed as the students will reason abstractly and quantitatively (Common Core State Standards Initiatives, 2016). The students in this study are seen to identify the quantities that have been involved in the problem and the relationship they have. Through decontextualizing the problem situations, learners can represent them symbolically. This is clear indication that the lesson plan in the article enables better understanding of mathematical concepts.
Implications for Classroom Practice
The use of the teaching and learning strategy that the researchers have proposed, it is quite possible that teachers will be able to understand the students who have failed to understand the mathematical concept and relationship of predictions with outcome. The use of CCSS MP3 where students construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others helps in pointing out those who have understood the concept from those who cannot (Common Core State Standards Initiatives, 2016). The student will demonstrate that the problem in question is similar to the lesson problems that were presented in the previous class. Through providing reasons for their solutions, the students demonstrate their understanding of the probability concept. This will help tackle future problem situations as they understand the meaning of different quantities and flexibly using various properties of operation and objects to realize the solutions.
References
Common Core State Standards Initiatives (2016) Standards for Mathematical Practice . CCSSI, Online. Retrieved from http://www.corestandards.org/Math/Practice/
Murphy, A., Terrizzi, M. & Cormas, P. (2012) “Getting Beyond the Guess”, Journal of the Association of Teachers of Mathematics , Mathematics Teaching, 277: 27-30.
