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Hi everyone! I was introduced to a new concept which is another form of problem-solving strategy, known as the Japanese Bansho strategy. This was my favorite part of the lesson, and this lecture in particular I found to be particular important, especially for enhancing problem-solving capacities in students. Although I connected the Japanese Bansho strategy to some of the structured and non-structured problem-solving strategies we have learned in previous classes, I realized that there are some distinctive features with the Japanese Bansho strategy. Features such as discussing all parts of the problems through collaboration, arranging various solutions based on complexity, and the extensive need of justification in this strategy is what makes this technique distinguished. We were then split into groups to answer the following question: "There are 36 children in Mrs. Smith's class. There are 8 more boys than girls. How many boys? How many girls?". Below are the followi...

We have been discussing structured problem solving in mathematics classrooms. One of the core activities that helped understand the conceptualization of structured problem-solving was the growing dots problem. We were shown pictures of dots that were increasing in quantity, and we had to discover various ways to determine how to determine the number of dots in the 100th picture. Below is an attachment of everyone's work: I was initially surprised at how many different ways there was to approach such a basic problem. As I've mentioned in my previous blogs, I have been trying to challenge myself to get out of the habit into finding an algebraic solution and investigate other ways to solve problems using my problem-solving skills. Through our gallery walk, I learned that there are graphical, logical, visual and algebraic solutions to the same problem. My favorite part of the activity was realizing that we can even use techniques such as extrapolation (which you would th...

Hi everyone, and welcome back to my blog! This week's lesson focused on the importance of instilling problem-solving skills in high school math students. We focused on the differentiation between various problem-solving strategies that were established by Polya and Doxiadis. Our class discussion regarding problem-solving strategies really evoked many practical aspects of the teaching profession. Personally, I felt like our discussion helped me in my tutoring with high school students. I sometimes feel that I am 'stuck in my ways' when it comes to teaching certain material. However, this class in specific has really challenged me to seek different ways in explaining specific math concepts to students. For example, techniques such as drawing a picture, or writing out lists of possibilities for a solution are strategies that I will implement into my own tutoring practice, and in my future classroom. Thinking Mathematically emphasizes the importance of students 'being stu...