Understanding graphs – does metacognitive questioning help students develop and refine their mathematical ideas?

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What classroom activities did the intervention involve?

The intervention was based on a 10 lesson, two week "Linear Graph Unit" intended to develop students' understanding of key points about graph work, such as: graph slope, intersection point, rate of change and other aspects of graph interpretation. The students were not given graph construction work in any class, as the researcher planned to use activities based on graph construction as a measure of how well the students could transfer ideas. All students used the same textbook and tackled the same problems/tasks. The teachers taught each class using a similar lesson structure consisting of: introduction (10 mins), group work (30 mins) and whole class review (5 mins).

Both sets of three classes used the same cooperative approach in their mathematics lessons. The teacher organised the students into groups of four each made up of one high achieving, one low achieving and two middle achieving students. Each student in turn read a problem and tried to solve it. While doing so s/he explained the task and proposed an approach for solving it to the other members of the group. If the team of four disagreed, they discussed the issue until all agreed upon a solution which they then wrote down. During the discussion they presented their own viewpoints and worked together to arrive at the best option for proceeding. When none of the team knew how to solve a task, they asked the teacher for help.

What was different was that the group which had been taught how to use metacognitive questioning used a series of questions in order to prompt comprehension, help decide choice of strategy, forge connections with previous experience and reflect on both the solutions reached and the process by which they got there. These are described further on the next page.

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Research Home Themes \| Find digests \| About the digests resources glossary researchers contact TRIPS Introduction What sorts of conceptual problems did the students have? How did the intervention affect students' mathematical understanding? What was classroom discourse like and how did it differ between the two samples? What classroom activities did the intervention involve? What questions were used to foster metacognition? How was the study designed and carried out? What are the implications of this work? Where can I find out more? Send us your feedback Collated digests To view/remove/add notes and save your collated digests click here Get Word Reader Understanding graphs – does metacognitive questioning help students develop and refine their mathematical ideas? This digest found in Thinking skills Mathematics Send to a friend Word doc 80KB Printer friendly Collate for later What classroom activities did the intervention involve? The intervention was based on a 10 lesson, two week "Linear Graph Unit" intended to develop students' understanding of key points about graph work, such as: graph slope, intersection point, rate of change and other aspects of graph interpretation. The students were not given graph construction work in any class, as the researcher planned to use activities based on graph construction as a measure of how well the students could transfer ideas. All students used the same textbook and tackled the same problems/tasks. The teachers taught each class using a similar lesson structure consisting of: introduction (10 mins), group work (30 mins) and whole class review (5 mins). Both sets of three classes used the same cooperative approach in their mathematics lessons. The teacher organised the students into groups of four each made up of one high achieving, one low achieving and two middle achieving students. Each student in turn read a problem and tried to solve it. While doing so s/he explained the task and proposed an approach for solving it to the other members of the group. If the team of four disagreed, they discussed the issue until all agreed upon a solution which they then wrote down. During the discussion they presented their own viewpoints and worked together to arrive at the best option for proceeding. When none of the team knew how to solve a task, they asked the teacher for help. What was different was that the group which had been taught how to use metacognitive questioning used a series of questions in order to prompt comprehension, help decide choice of strategy, forge connections with previous experience and reflect on both the solutions reached and the process by which they got there. These are described further on the next page.