Developing Effective Instructional Strategies for Students (especially in the study of Math)

While attending a meeting at school, I saw the best thing ever. We were in a deep discussion about ways to foster the authentic learning habits of our students when a member of my team mentioned math and how we work to help our students become strong math thinkers. It was amazing to watch the team wrestle with best practices in the face of our day-to-day reality. For me, the very best part of the meeting was having the team agree to help our students become strong math thinkers by helping them “build a strong number sense, develop strategies to retrieve (access) the information that they have learned, and provide lots of opportunities to practice what they have learned.” While I believe these are all helpful strategies being used in or math classes, these strategies can also be found in many other disciplines within the academic curriculum. Thankfully, there are many teachers and administrators who believe we must help students develop foundational strategies to help them in all of their studies (especially math). Ultimately, I want to inspire students to be active learners and not simply people with excellent memorization skills.

The folks at Education Weekly recently wrote two great posts that I think give good insights into how best to develop effective instructional strategies for students, especially in the study of Math. Check out links to parts I & II below. tlb