Workshop Descriptions
Helping Students Learn Mathematics Through Problem Solving provides strategies for designing and using meaningful investigations, writing dynamic problems, and enhancing current classroom activities so that students will develop a deeper understanding and produce more thoughtful responses. Teachers will gain an understanding of how successful students learn and how to develop those skills in others, as well as how to build relevant, informative assessments that will allow them to monitor and foster mathematical thinking without interrupting instruction.
Creating a Learner-Centered Classroom is designed to assist science teachers in creating a facilitative classroom that focuses on inquiry, encourages higher levels of thinking for all students, and orchestrates discourse through speaking, writing and graphic representation. Specific strategies addressed include inquiry-based learning, discussion and discourse techniques, a five-stage instructional model, inductive thinking, discrepant events, brainstorming, assignment of roles in collaborative groups and graphic organizers. The workshop provides strategies for designing and using meaningful investigations, writing dynamic problems, and enhancing current classroom activities so that students will develop a deeper understanding and produce more thoughtful responses. Teachers will gain a clear understanding of how successful students learn and how to develop those skills in others, as well as how to build relevant, informative assessments that allow teachers to monitor and foster scientific thinking without interrupting instruction. Workshop topics include engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration and evaluation.