Professional Development Workshop

This one-day professional development workshop is designed to help teachers give their students an authentic experience of ‘doing mathematics’ while at the same time supporting success in tests and examinations.

Enabling your students to work in a way that is similar to the way a research mathematician works can dramatically change the classroom experience, for the better. Would you like to find out how, for example, a topic like Pythagoras’ Theorem could be approached a little differently?

In their work, research mathematicians do not generally:

• Sit competitions
• Have daily lessons or lectures
• Study for tests and exams.

So what do they do? Among other things, they use mathematics they are operational with to solve problems, problems that they initially have no idea how to solve.

In this workshop you will be tasked with solving various ‘simple’ problems, and in doing so, a way of working will reveal itself that offers an alternative to teaching just the facts and processes associated with mathematical ideas. You will learn how to give your students an authentic experience of ‘doing maths’ in much the same way that professional mathematicians do.

Learning Goals:

• Practical strategies for analysing experiences of mathematical problem-solving
• The ability to create the conditions for your students to have their own independent ideas, and to see where they lead
• An experience that simulates mathematical research

This training addresses AITSL standards including:

2.1 – Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area
4.1 – Support student participation
6.2 – Engage in professional learning and improve practice
6.3 – Engage with colleagues and improve practice