There is no way students can get engaged in math without being absolutely keen on it. Yes, math is hard and requires your passionate and motivated attitude. It doesn’t make sense to study this subject if you are not in love with it! To fall in love with math, students need to see the beauty of it. And to see its beauty, it is crucial to understand it.
In the classroom, understanding can be reached by communication and discussion. Let your classroom turn into a buzzy and lively one! Let’s discuss how to do that.
Positive classroom environment
Complicated materials can be grasped better when the classroom environment is communicative and positive. Silent classrooms should turn into discussions, while dependence from the teacher should turn into cooperation. All students should be engaged in the learning process to become more enthusiastic.
Some learners grasp the tasks fast and sit still until the new one arrives. The others are looking for help and support. Still, others are struggling with the task until everyone else does it. Students might feel comfortable when they work in groups or on their own. All of these factors should be considered when you try to improve the classroom atmosphere.
To engage students in learning, teachers should encourage them to talk, discuss, and work together to develop understanding. Productivity, freedom, and creativity should be valued above everything else. There are no results without active engagement.
Work a discourse dialogue out
Conversations are everything! However, young students might have problems with that. As a rule, they lack specific communicational skills that help them talk about complicated math concepts and develop debates. Students shouldn’t be focused on responses only, so they need to know how to state questions and express their opinions. Here are some useful phrases for practice:
- There is another way to say this…
- I agree because…
- I can’t entirely agree because…
- I did this task differently; this is how…
- Please explain what you mean by…
- I want to add that…
- Please show this in another way.
When students lack language that follows certain thinking patterns, they might have problems when trying to frame their thoughts. With the patterns listed above, they will learn how to do this more efficiently.
Encourage self-evaluation
It is crucial to let students check each other’s tasks and discuss strategies, methods, and solutions. Evaluation boosts understanding. Encourage learners to discuss their answers and ask “how” and “why” questions. This will make them collaborate and get to the bottom of the task. When observing a question from all sides, they learn it better. As a result, students will explain it confidently to the class and themselves. Self-evaluation will also help learners find their mistakes and indicate weak places in their knowledge.
