Active Learning: Revisiting the Shift, Part 2

Students engage in mathematical discourse as teacher Adrienne Baytops Paul stands by, intentionally out of the way of their discussion.

After discovering what to do to increase mathematical discourse among my students, I had to consider how to do it effectively and consistently. One of the easiest ways for me to help my students to engage in math discourse with one another took little to no preparation on my part: just an awareness of their needs and a willingness to trust their thinking.

Check out the excerpt from my Edutopia article “A Shift from Lecturing to Facilitating Learning in Middle and Math” (2022) to learn more about this easy strategy that amplifies student voice in the math classroom. 

Move #2. Stand back: A second, seemingly trivial, teacher move presents space, figuratively and literally, for students to consider conceptual ideas and make decisions independent of teacher influence. This positioning is even more powerful after you’ve created a safe learning environment where student agency carries significant value.

During activities which probe the class as a collective, we should position ourselves out of the sightline of students. One smile, nod, or slight twitch of the head can change the trajectory of a student’s strategy and can negatively affect a student’s self-esteem. Placing the decision of confirming or denying solutions on the students has the potential to engage all students and provide agency and voice to each one.

During a recent warm-up about negative inequalities in my pre-algebra class, a student offered an incorrect inequality as the solution; he hadn’t realized that he needed to change the sign from “greater than or equal to” to its opposite. As I stood off to the side, several voices from the class gently discouraged the student’s answer, offered the correct solution, and supported their reasoning by referring to the number line provided on the board.

The high level of engagement by multiple students would not have happened if I had stepped in and corrected the student. The moment was a strong example of collaborative active learning and how students can take ownership of their understanding.

Standing behind students during a discussion about a task or during a warm-up activity also encourages the students to focus more on the question or task at hand, rather than wait for the teacher to tell them what to do or think. It suggests to the students that the solution paths are accessible for all of them. It also deepens the shift for the teacher by strengthening the facilitator role.