Abstract

There has been an ongoing controversy surrounding mathematics education and the best way to teach it. Some scholars advocate for a return to the basics: a classroom that is teacher centred and more traditional. Other educators advocate for mathematics reform: a classroom that is student centred and inquiry based. As a classroom teacher of mathematics for the past few years, I have been searching for ways to get my students to actively think about mathematics; I wanted my students to develop critical thinking skills and mathematical problem solving ability. In my mind, reform teaching methods were the solution. This research study describes the experiences of my students and me over the course of 6 months as I implemented a teaching method that was based on teaching through problem solving. The research participants were 19 grade 6 students enrolled in a private school in southern Ontario, and I was both the classroom teacher and the researcher. This study is a qualitative analysis of the experiences of what it is like for a classroom teacher to change her teaching approach and the reactions of her students to this change. Data were gathered from a variety of sources including student attitude surveys, critical thinking tests, problem solving journals, rich learning tasks, field notes, student journals, and interviews. Over the course of the study both my students and I faced considerable challenges adjusting to a new way of looking at mathematics. The reactions to this teaching method varied from student to student, but this was a learning experience and a time of growth for all involved.