Apropos Problem-Solving

For my lesson this morning, I tried something I don't normally do - write questions the students need to answer before any teaching.

Bit of Background

I haven't seen my year 7 maths class for nearly a week, not counting yesterday which was used for a common spreadsheet assessment. I thought they needed something to remind them of the last lesson - division of decimals, capping off operations on decimals.

Lesson Today

I put up 8 questions on operations, 4 with whole numbers and 4 with decimals. Interestingly, none of them picked up that I actually used the same digits for the same operations - until I asked if they can see a pattern. That is, they really didn't need to 'calculate' twice ... but they did! Far from a gimmick, I really wanted to contrast operations on whole numbers and decimals with the hope that they will see they are building on previous knowledge (applied connectionism).

I also had a problem-solving question:

"Shop 1 is having a 15% off store-wide sale. CD1 normally costs $20 in that shop. Shop 2 is selling the same CD for $16.95. Show which shop is selling the CD cheaper and by how much." ...names have been changed

This problem provided teaching-learning opportunities for:

1. Rounding (topic for the day, in fact)
2. Discounting (percentage of a quantity)
3. Smart-shopping (comparing prices)
4. Justifying answers

Of course, the difference is only 5 cents which many students felt was not worthwhile going to shop 2 for but that's another matter altogether.

Post-mortem

All up,the class was engaged and on-task - on a period 1 lesson at that. While this 'start' took longer than the anticipated 15-minutes due to pursued opportunities, I couldn't have asked for a better way to do this topic. I will certainly try to create more of such opportunities for connectionism and engagement. Finding a problem that's not only relevant and meaningful can be tricky but certainly worthwhile.

Apropos Creativity

I was reading a transcript of Sir Ken Robinson's presentation about Creativity in schools. This has really got me thinking about creativity. The article is well-worth a read (hence the provision of the link) and there are a few points I'd like to mull over in this posting.

Point 1: Creativity is "schooled" out, not in

The idea of Creativity being constrained and under-valued in the educational system is not new. Perhaps this is a product of the Industrial Age - streamline, keep things the same, avoid risks. There is a sobering truth in that for a vast majority, the amount of creative spirit is diminished throughout the schooling years. I was one. The irony is that creativity is valued post-school. The onus is on the individual to pick up the pieces and make up for lost time. I've been working on this and trying to give myself more opportunities to exercise creativity at work and at home.

Point 2: Creativity means taking risks

When most of your professional life is geared around risk management (prevention and mitigation), it becomes clear how creativity is stifled. It is sad that after creativity is constrained in school, it is further constrained in the workplace. I am glad some do take risks to give us many innovations (conceptual and real) that we enjoy now.

Point 3: Creativity as a process of having original ideas that have value

I remember a previous colleague who said very few things are really original. The idea of 'value' is also arguably personal. Nevertheless, it is a handy definition because if you have created something which is valuable - even if only you think so - then it is not a waste. I particularly like the notion of 'process', harking back from my Process Management days. Processes lead to products. Processes can be honed and improved. Processes can be repeated. Processes can be shared and taught. Need I say more?