Harkness and Groupwork Approach to Teaching Secondary

Mathematics

Max Sterelyukhin BSc, BEd, PDP, MSc Candidate,

Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC

What is Harkness Teaching?

https://www.exeter.edu/media/content/harkness_Flash_harkness3_rdax_422x294_75.jpg

http://www.jpost.com/HttpHandlers/ShowImage.ashx?ID=149840

- Developed and implemented at Phillips Exeter Academy, New Hampshire, USA

- Edward Harkness’s gift: “What I have in mind is a classroom where students could sit around a table with a teacher who would talk with them and instruct them by a sort of tutorial or conference method, where each student would feel encouraged to speak up. This would be a real revolution in methods.”

Our Initiative

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUZOlwJ2TqA

Classroom Nuts and Bolts

Overall Project

• (1) Pre-Treatment Stage: students are given the survey (instrument)

• (2) Treatment Stage: student-centered classes are administrated; Harkness classroom environment established, classes are recorded on video.

• (3) Post-Treatment Stage: students are given the survey again to see any significant differences in engagement and mathematics aptitude; videos are analysed and transcribed, artifacts collected (notebooks, work, projects, etc).

Question Examples

Discussion Analysis: Interactive Flow Chart Model

Legend- Math related utterance, directed to the table or person- Non-Math related utterance, directed to the table or person- Gaze to the table or person- Teacher position at the table- Student position at the table- Tablet position at the table

Conclusions thus far…

- Surveys show a significant improvement of the following:

- Personal Attitude towards Mathematics- Engagement- Social Attitude- Test/Exam Anxiety

- Discussion Analysis has identified a key element of an engaged discussion: tension and disagreement

- Further and deeper analysis of the discussions via Interactive Flow Chart will allow to identify the when, how, who, and why of engaged discussions

Selected References• Bennett, C. A. (2009). " It’s Hard Getting Kids to Talk About Math ":

Helping New Teachers Improve Mathematical Discourse”, 32(3).• Fiori, N., & Boaler, J. (2003). What Discussions Teach Us About

Mathematical Understanding: Exploring and Assessing Students’ Mathematical Work in Classroomsitle, (2001).

• Mcgraw, R. H. (2002). Facilitating Whole-Class Discussion in Secondary Mathematics Classrooms.

• Smith, M , Stein, M K. (2011). Five Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions. NCTM.

• Weber, K., Maher, C., Powell, A., & Lee, H. S. (2008). Learning opportunities from group discussions: warrants become the objects of debate. (Array, Ed.)Educational Studies in Mathematics, 68(3), 247–261. doi:10.1007/s10649-008-9114-8

• Qi-Ping Kong, Ngai-Ying, Chi-Chung Lam. (2003). Student Engagement in Mathematics: Development of Instrument and Validation of Construct. Mathematics Education Research Journal. Vol 15, No. 1, 4-23.

• Peter Liljedahl and Chiara Andrà. (2013) Student’s Gazes: New Insights into Student Interactions.

Contact Info

Max Sterelyukhin

Email: msterely@sfu.caTwitter: @msterelyWeb: www.maxsterelyukhin.com