Enormous changes are happening with the Teaching &
Learning of maths. It’s the same throughout education globally.
But when you’re in it: you often can’t see it; or feel it.
Each year seems to be the same … only the faces of this year’s classes have
changed from last year's.
A few years ago, I discussed collaborative problem-solving
in mathematics with Professor Tom Seidenberg from Philips Exeter Academy in New
Hampshire, US. Every subject is taught there collaboratively by a
teacher/mentor around a Harkness oval table.
The Harkness method has been the Exeter pedagogy for 87
years. It’s also been a model for many other very progressive schools.
The maths faculty has written hundreds of problems which you
can access on the Exeter website (www.exeter.edu).
These problems are the basis for the collaborative lessons.
I was inspired by Professor Seidenberg and Harkness. So much
so that I started MathsRepublic for teachers to connect with their students
through collaborative problem-solving.
You can support the vision by trialling MathsRepublic FREE
and then being invited to subscribe. That’s the easy part.
The hard part is breaking through that resistance to change
… a characteristic shared by all humans when change is happening all around
them.
But this is the time when Real Teachers emerge. These are teachers
who recognise that T&L is an evolution but now accelerated by technology or
EduTech to reach warp speed.
Real teachers know that it’s the students that matter. They
acknowledge that students today were all born into the Web World…that they
interact from an early age with the web and social connections.
There surely must be a new model of teacher/student
connectivity for learning.
We believe that putting Harkness in the Cloud through
MathsRepublic will introduce all Teachers to collaborative problem-solving.
And to then engage in Real Teaching with your amazing students.
