Helping My Students Take Ownership of Their Own Learning
When my school first teamed up with a TC² team, I was intrigued. They suggested that critical thinking could be embedded throughout the curriculum, even in mathematics.
Initial skepticism
At the time, I was teaching students at the Grade 3/4 level. I was skeptical—could this really work in a Grade 3/4 classroom? I had many students who did not have a clear grasp of basic concepts in number sense. I considered my lessons and teaching style to be relatively progressive because I got students to use math tools and asked them to explain their thinking.
On reflection
Well, I was wrong. The TC² team got me thinking about my teaching approach. With reflection, I realized that I was front-loading my students. Instead of allowing them to think of ways to solve a problem, I was giving them an algorithm and a particular way of getting the right answer. Furthermore, I was teaching math by strands—as if in silos—instead of focusing on their inter-connectedness. Learning one strand at a time hindered my students’ ability to transfer knowledge and skills from one strand to another.
Getting things started
TC² brought a huge change in my teaching philosophy. My teaching team and I began by delving into the critical thinking framework to help us rework our math lessons. We discovered ways we could transform the text book questions we’d already been using into open-ended tasks with multiple entry points accessible to all our students. We developed authentic contexts that gave students opportunities to muck around and find their own ways to solve problems. It was interesting to see how hard it was for them to think on their own.
The rewards
Before long, the student conversation in small groups had transformed, as students began to make connections to their prior knowledge. This process brought many student misconceptions to the forefront, which allowed for great teaching moments.
It wasn’t easy for my students to “learn to think”—the process took them out of their comfort zone. At the same time, however, it fueled their curiosity and creativity. Student engagement went up, the understanding of concepts was more grounded—they weren’t just memorizing a set of facts or an algorithm. Students had taken ownership of their learning and were observing their own growth as learners as they reflected in their Thought books.
Nurturing thoughtfulness
Many people claim that inquiry learning hinders the mastery of basic skills. I believe the opposite: that the inquiry model reinforces the mastery of basic skills. Once students stop thinking of a concept as an abstraction and instead understand the logic behind it, they can more successfully master the skills associated with it.
Yes, bringing critical thinking into my classroom entails a lot of work: both planning and teaching takes longer. The results, however, are worth it.
Albert Einstein once said, “The value of an education in a liberal arts college is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks.” While I agree with Einstein, my experience with TC² has shown me that people can start to think much earlier—in a Grade 3/4 classroom!
Shamima Basrai
ELD Itinerant Teacher
Curriculum and Instruction Support Services
Glenhaven Senior Public School
Peel District School Board, Ontario
