Making Meaning

Several years ago, Jo Boloar’s course ‘How to Learn Math’, included a video clip, of Sebastian Thrun speaking about his approach to problem solving and math. I felt a spark of recognition and a sighed with relief to hear him say that we should not move ahead with a problem until we understand it intuitively; that we need to take time to understand and internalize the meaning and context of the problem. Time to think and develop a meaningful context changes everything for learners. Problem solvers become more emotionally vested in a solution when they make connections and link concepts. Every teacher loves the ‘ah ha’ moment when a student thinks, ‘There is sense here!’ and learners who have time to explore, question, and play with the ideas, develop that intuition and agency over their own learning.

Peter Johnston in his excellent book: Choice Words, states:

“There are hidden costs in telling people things.  If a student can figure something out for him-or-herself, explicitly providing the information preempts the student’s opportunity to build a sense of agency and independence.” p.8

And this I love too: ” … most accomplished teachers do not spend a lot of time in telling mode.” p.8

And so, I work to cultivate courage and curiosity in my classroom. Courage to tackle something that is hard, knowing that it is OK to make a mistake, and the curiosity to question what we see and think as we work together. This means that I promote, model and identify those qualities for any challenge we face as learners in my classroom.

I highly recommend, Choice Words by Peter Johnson. I love this book! Can you tell? Perhaps it’s because these ideas fit with my own reflective personal style, but more than that, Peter Johnson excels at demonstrating the power of well chosen words.

There will be more posts to come on this engaging and thoughtful book.