2013-14 School In-Service Training Grants (Pre-K-5) Recipient

Teaching Critical Thinking and Problem Solving in a Guided Math Setting

Students need to be able to make sense of what they are being asked in a contextual problem and persevere to an end solution. I propose a staff development where teachers will learn to pose rigorous, contextual problems to be used by students to develop critical thinking skills. Mathematics skills would be taught through contextual problem solving and not in isolation. We want our teachers to be facilitators in a constructivist environment so that our students can learn to think deeply about a problem, are able to verbalize and write their thinking, make a plan, and know and understand all the possibilities they have with mathematics instead of just trying to keep a multitude of processes straight. Our student population is very diverse. I truly believe that by broadening our students' ability to critically think in problem solving situations greater equity will be achieved in our classrooms.