Findings+-+Secondary+Team

=//How did you create the conditions necessary to prompt student questions in your teaching?//=

// At Lara Secondary College, we prepared the class by **setting up the chairs in an inclusive design** to encourage better learning conditions in which students can communicate and work better in a team environment. The students seating design position should **focus on the ‘U’ shape or group form** with the space in front for whiteboard and teacher. The students sit on the floor to form a community circle. The community circle is the key for the students to engage in the lesson, we always begin with the **community circle** then follow the unit guide lesson on the white board. // // At the beginning of the lesson, the community circle will begin with the unit lesson and raises issues like homework, tasks due, any discipline problems and revision from the past lesson. Students usually raise some questions about past and present topics during **discussion and revision in the community circle**. We conduct revision by doing interactive activities so students feel more relaxed and to build their confidence and work together as community. The revision activity is a fresh start for all students and especially for those who are not sure or are not confident to raise questions, this can support and build their confidence by listening to others. // At Rowville Secondary College, after experimenting with the setup of the classroom, the classes ran best when the tables were put into rows. Students were able to collaborate with their classmates, with ALL students able to see the whiteboard and the teacher. Even though rules were put into place from the beginning, the classes were run in a casual manner. The emphasis was on showing respect for every person and their opinions. It was emphasised at the beginning of the teaching round that "The only stupid question is the one that is not asked." A quite unexpected result was that the students often initiated one-on-one and class wide discussions. Some of the more interesting class wide discussions included the negotiation of what was to be done in class and done for homework - the class voting to devote a large amount of class time doing practice tests and SACs and leaving their exercises for homework; whether the logic behind the creation of imaginary numbers (and by extension, all sets of numbers) was fundamentally flawed; and with the introduction of any new concept, discussion to answer the always overhanging question - "When am I ever going to use this?" Individually, most students were comfortable in asking for help, even seeking it out of class. In short, the best way to prompt student questioning in my teaching was to treat the students as people, rather than the "traditional" (patronising) "teacher is higher than student".

=How did you embed student questions in your planning for learning?=

// Students often raise questions during the unit discussions which often **relate to language structure and cultural context** and we use supporting material that is related to the topic such as **explanation with actions, story telling and other support materials such as pictures, maps and money. Using a variety of support methods usually provides greater student interest and increases their desire to learn another language.** Story telling is also an important way for students to share their experiences and any questions raised can be answered by the students which can also lead into interesting discussion with student engaging in more than one topic. Outlining the lesson before the tasks begin can encourage the students’ questions. When we create/choose the worksheet often we see only a standardised approach to learning which need to be cover so we need to encourage and promote learning further than just the textbook. By going through the worksheet and providing an example we are able to encourage students’ questions and have them involved in answering. My mentor also suggested I create a challenge sheet for year 7 which I applied. I first had students attempt **a task individually** then using 2 new task sheets A & B, I asked students to complete by working in the group. The students who worked individually on the whole found task A easier than task B, on the other hand when the students worked **in groups** a lot positive comments and questions were raised. **Technology in the form of laptops** was also used to deliver the lesson to great effect. I found that this method of delivery ‘modernised’ the lesson and encouraged interactive learning between students. // // At the beginning of each lesson, a rough outline of the lesson and the plans for future lessons would be given to and negotiated with the students. Should any of the students have any questions, about the plans or otherwise, I would be more than happy to answer them, but the key was not so much designing learning that responds to students' "questions", but rather learning that suits the students. It was in the author's opinion that it would be unethical to directly ask students the questions that we were trying to find the answers to, so in order to respond to the set questions, the key was observing them in the learning environment and the best ways in which the students learn. The author found that the majority of students were most engaged when they had a piece of equipment on hand, like a calculator, or were doing an activity that involved concrete materials, such as paper folding or cutting. They enjoyed stories about the creation of mathematics and how it relates to what they had learned in the past, and they also were interested to know how it fits into the real world. The main thing that I felt the students really needed to work on was building up their problem solving and analysing skills - many would read a question but have no idea what it was asking or how to access the mathematics behind it. I therefore devoted entire sessions to students analysing real world problems to find their key words, figuring out what mathematical concepts and skills would be required to solve the problem, and actually solving them. By having developed a rapport with my students, knowing what they liked and did not like, already knew and did not know, needed to know and did not need to know, and their preferred learning styles, I was able to develop lessons that were centred around the students. //

=//How did you design learning that responds to your students questions?//= // At the ends of the lesson the students sat again in the community circle to encourage feed back on what they have learned in each lesson and their reflections. This can be done by setting some questions related to their learning such as “**What did the individual student learn today?” and “What do the individual students need to improve?”** Every student should answer the question without any interruption and remind them that **there isn’t any right or wrong answers when they have turn**.

In the end, I found that my students on the whole liked to feel responsible for their own learning and their own work. Having said that, many of the students felt that they weren't any good at mathematics and were used to failure. With that in mind, I designed assessment tasks around what I felt the students were capable of doing. When it became clear that even some of those were too difficult, I'd allow collaboration - bringing in assessment for and as learning as well as the assessment of learning. I found that the students were much more productive when they were allowed to work in groups. Those who were understanding the material would help those who were not, and in the process gain a firmer grasp of the concepts and skills that they were being taught at the time. //