Active Learning

I struggled with math my whole life. I got stuck behind because the class was moving forward but I had no idea what was going on. I was copying off Wolfgang and trying to get help but I wasn’t really learning the stuff. But the class would just continue and move on. But active learning strategies would have helped me succeed. 

Active learning is an engaging process. Instead of a professor lecturing about how to do something, the student actually discovers it themselves. There is research showing this leads to longer term learning gains, and there's a lot of evidence to support this. I remember in my calculus class later, in college, we were in a small group working on derivatives and rate of change for weeks, learning about how it worked, but we didn't know what we were learning was a derivative yet. And then eventually, after five weeks, the teacher put up a PowerPoint and told us about derivatives. And we said, “Oh, of course!” Strategies like that can really help. 

One great active learning strategy is questioning. That is something you can use in your tutoring sessions. Ask questions and get to the bottom of their mathematical reasoning. “What do you think about factoring?” “How would you describe the rate of change?” For one thing, this will show you how much they know. And you'll be able to see the holes in their thinking. But also they're going to realize their own errors by stating things out loud. They'll say, “Maybe I don't know this quite as well as I thought.” 

Asking questions is more engaging than lecturing. It's more fun and keeps people interested for longer too. Get your students engaged with the material by asking questions, as opposed to lecturing. And research other active learning strategies too. This way you can talk to parents and say confidently, “What I'm doing is backed by research studies.” People are looking for that.