Nurturing Structural Thinking through Teacher-Facilitated Problem Solving
Keywords:
Problem solving, rich tasks, structural thinkingAbstract
One essential goal of mathematics teaching is to develop the habit of mind and the ability to look for and recognize structures, to probe into and act upon structures, and to reason and justify in terms of general structures. Framed by the five practices for orchestrating productive mathematics discussions (Smith & Stein, 2011), this paper uses the Horse Rider problem as an example to illustrate how teachers can nurture student structural thinking through careful sequencing of mathematical tasks.
References
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National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). 2010. Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. Washington, DC: NGA Center and CCSSO.
Smith, M. & Stein, M. (2011). Five practices for orchestrating productive mathematics discussions. Reston, VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
Usiskin, Z. (1968). Six nontrivial equivalent problems. The Mathematics Teacher, 61(4), 388-390. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27957852
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