Year 10 Mathematics and problem solving

Katie Jackson, Mathematics Department, and a Fellow of the Global Action Research Collaborative of Girls’ Education (2021/22), has been working on her project of making mathematics visible in girls’ education. The result is the paper, “How does the use of vertical whiteboards encourage Year 10 girls to take risks when solving problems in Mathematics?” which will be presented at the National Coalition Girls’ Schools (USA) conference in June 2022.

Katie has been part of a group of educators from around the world whose online meetings have resulted in confidence and skills in action research, as well as the formation of friendships and new connections. In her classroom at Pymble, in the room known as C16, two walls of ceiling to floor whiteboards were installed. This simple, relatively affordable, ‘no-tech’ solution now sees students gather in small groups to discuss their mathematics and more openly and confidently demonstrate and talk about their thinking.

Findings in this project include:

• teacher’s confidence that mathematical knowledge can become visible
• identification of ways learning is verbalised and can be shared in Maths lessons
• experiencing shifts in power as students begin to teach each other, and utilise the expertise of the teacher differently
• promoting increased risk taking due to the impermanence of writing on white boards.

As well as benefits for our students which will be explored further at Pymble as the C16 classroom is used by many classes, Katie commends the opportunity provided by the grant. “It has been great to know I can research and write, and so nice to get to know participants from all around the world, such as those in my small group who are from Hawaii, America and Canada”.

More about the other 2021/22 GARC Fellows is available here: https://www.ncgs.org/research/garc/meet-the-2021-2022-fellows/

Applications for the 2023/24 GARC cohort will open shortly.