Term
Fall 2021
Capstone
Capstone Project
Degree Name
MAEd
Facilitator(s)
Karen Moroz
Content Expert
Jean Hanson
Abstract
A review of the literature and reflection on personal experience show a need to rethink the way we teach and learn mathematics. A traditional math class relies on direct instruction and emphasizes decontextualized procedures and algorithms. This type of instruction does not work well for the majority of students, nor does it prescribe to the goals of math education in our modern world. We don’t need “human computers'' like we did before the internet. Instead, the primary goal for most high school math students is to develop the mathematical thinking skills needed to tackle new problems. Inspired by Peter Liljedahl’s 2020 book Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics, the unit plans designed for this capstone project are rooted in curricular thinking tasks - open-ended problems meant to help students experience the curricular content and gain conceptual understanding before formalizing mathematical procedures. The goal is that these unit plans will be a resource for other teachers to aid in promoting students’ mathematical thinking and engagement.
Project Type
Curriculum
Keywords
Curriculum, Mathematics, Teachers/ Teaching
Recommended Citation
Weispfennig, Michaela, "Developing Mathematical Thinking in High Schoolers Through “Curricular Thinking Tasks”" (2021). School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects. 762.
https://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/hse_cp/762
dc_type
text
dc_publisher
DigitalCommons@Hamline
dc_format
application/pdf
dc_source
School of Education Student Capstone Projects