The Future of Education

The presentation builds on a year-long action research project during which a teacher gave a weekly extra mathematics lesson, which drew upon the principles of inquiry-based learning (IBL), to a small group of 11-year-old low-achieving girls (see Borg Barthet, 2019). An essential component of an IBL approach to the teaching and learning of mathematics (see Maaß & Artigue, (2013) is the use of what Boaler (2016) refers to as ‘rich mathematical tasks’. These tasks invite students to experience mathematics learning through a number of higher order cognitive processes with which they do not normally engage while working on traditional textbook tasks that rely mostly on well-known solution routines and procedures. Data was collected through teacher classroom observations, a teacher’s reflective journal, a student questionnaire, semi-structured student interviews, student feedback sheets, and informal conversations with the teacher’s colleagues. A thematic analysis of the data (see Creswell, 2013) suggests that the use of IBL in class has the potential to lead struggling students of mathematics, who have long felt alienated from learning the subject, to engage actively in a collaborative learning environment through which they develop deeper reasoning processes and more autonomy in the learning of mathematics. In Borg Barthet’s study, however, the students’ newly acquired agency in learning mathematics appeared to dissipate quickly once the teacher, towards the end of the scholastic year, decided to substitute the non-traditional rich mathematics tasks with the more traditional examination-type ones. Ironically, she had changed the type of tasks to address her students’ declared preference to work on tasks that, from their perspective, serve for revision purposes and consequently prepare them belter for the school’s annual mathematics examination. The abrupt loss of student agency in learning reported in her study reveals the strong influence that the choice of mathematical tasks has on the classroom learning environment and the negative impact that traditional examinations continue to have on students’ learning of mathematics. Reflecting on this reality, the presentation problematises the effective use of non-traditional rich mathematical tasks within a national education system that has remained essentially embedded within a traditional assessment culture.

Keywords: Teaching, learning and assessing mathematics; mathematical tasks; student agency in learning; teacher professional development through action research. 

References:
[1] Boaler, J. (2016) Mathematical mindsets: Unleashing students’ potential through creative math, inspiring messages and innovative teaching. San Francisco, CA: Josey-Bass.
[2] Borg Barthet, K. (2019) Year 7 students learning mathematics in different teaching scenarios: A comparative study. Unpublished MA dissertation, University of Malta, Malta.
[3] Creswell, J.W. (2013) Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (3rd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.
[4] Maaß, K., & Artigue, M. (2013) Implementation of inquiry-based learning in day-to-day teaching: A synthesis. ZDM, 45(6), 779–795.