Inquiry-based learning
I used to think teaching only meant clear lessons, tight objectives, and content delivered efficiently.
Then one day, I walked into class and wrote a single question on the board:
“Why do humans invent things—and where do our ideas come from?”
No slides. No lecture. Just curiosity.
At first, there was silence. Then a hand went up. Then another.
By the end of the hour, students were talking about nature, skateboards, birds, prosthetics, connecting ideas I hadn’t even considered.
What a great question! In my approaches to teaching and learning in mathematics I have found that teaching what is mathematics and the history of mathematics alongside the mathematics itself has been a game changer. I began this approach 3 years ago and have been refining it. Something I am still working on? Concurrently I am trying to teach mathematical fluency, the movement from the graphical to the symbolic to numerical and I struggle sometimes to find resources to support this. I have also realized that years 7-9 need to be more exploratory and less procedural, with multiple forms of assessments, not just tests. So I am exploring other options that demonstrate critical understanding vs thinking