Course Full Team Maths – Enhancing Active Learning

This course aims to develop the key skill of problem solving in the classroom and looks at a variety of approaches to encourage and hone problem solving skills. Participants will be enabled to:

• create a variety of activities for younger classes which cover five curricular strands and develop a range of skills including reasoning, understanding and problem-solving.
• distinguish between teaching for, about and through problem solving and to identify criteria for selecting worthwhile mathematical problem solving approaches based on the school self-evaluation process.
• use maths manipulatives effectively to enhance the teaching of numeracy (specifically problem solving) in the classroom, collaboratively plan lessons for junior to senior classes and develop an awareness to the importance of planning and questioning when using maths manipulatives.
• participate in various discussion settings and to understand about the importance of written, symbolic, numerical and visual representations in pupil work.
• create and teach open-ended problem solving.
• examine the role of ICT (specifically hand held devices) in problem solving.
• explore how the environment can be used to elicit problem solving in the classroom and experience examples of higher and lower order questioning.
• create a variety of activities for maths trails.

On completion of this course participants will have a greater understanding of the importance and benefits of co-operative learning and be better equipped to look at ways of reducing reliance on textbooks and workbooks in the classroom.