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The Top 3 Educational Trends Seen This Summer
Top Three Educational Trends Seen This Summer
As the summer moves along (quickly, as only summer can), educators are focusing on key trends to boost learning and engagement in the classroom. Many of these national trends align with those highlighted at the recent joint conference of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) held this past June.
There’s a stronger need for solutions that address critical thinking, problem-solving, and computational fluency in math education. By incorporating these core elements into their teaching strategies, educators are fostering more dynamic and interactive learning environments. This approach not only equips students with vital academic skills but also prepares them for real-world challenges.
Trend 1: Problem-Solving Using Context Instead of Key Words
Problem-solving using context instead of relying on keywords is crucial, especially as students advance to higher grades. While using specific words to identify mathematical operations can be helpful in the early stages of learning, this method becomes less effective as problems become more complex. Relying solely on keywords can lead to misinterpretations and incorrect solutions because it does not require students to understand the problem fully—they often jump straight into computation. Guiding students to read and comprehend the entire problem helps them focus on the context and the relationships between the elements involved.
How to bring it to your classrooms:
- Guide students to determine the context first: Encourage them to read and understand the situation before considering the numbers.
- Use numberless word problems: This scaffolding technique helps students concentrate on the context without being distracted by numerical information.
- Focus on comprehension: Move away from keyword strategies and help students fully grasp the meaning of problems.
How ORIGO can help:
ORIGO’s Stepping Stones program provides a starting point for teachers, aiming to facilitate classroom conversations by the The program is built on the principle that whoever is doing the talking is doing the thinking, emphasizing the importance of ensuring that students are actively engaged and thinking critically. This approach ensures that students are the ones doing the thinking, fostering more profound understanding and engagement in the learning process.
Trend 2: Building Thinking Classrooms
A thinking classroom in mathematics is an environment where students actively engage in problem-solving and critical thinking through rich, open-ended problems and collaborative discussions. It emphasizes conceptual understanding and productive struggle, allowing students to explore various strategies and build deep mathematical insights. Teachers guide these discussions and provide ongoing formative assessments to support and enhance students’ learning processes.
How to bring it to your classrooms:
- Encourage productive struggle: Allow students to grapple with problems, fostering resilience and perseverance.
- Facilitate discussions based on student thinking: Use techniques from the NCTM 5 Practices to guide meaningful conversations in the classroom, promoting critical thinking and deeper understanding.
- Utilize professional development: Coaching and professional development can support educators in creating thinking classrooms.
How ORIGO can help:
ORIGO Education offers a tailored, comprehensive professional learning program built from the latest research on mathematics teaching and learning and implementation science. Our team of learning service educators offer coaching sessions, strategies to leverage supplemental resources, and embedded on-demand support to meet the unique needs of any school or district.
Trend 3: Computational Fluency
Computational fluency in mathematics is the ability to solve problems accurately, efficiently, and flexibly using various strategies and methods. Many students in struggle with this skill at different levels—such as addition and subtraction for grade 1 or multiplication and division for grade 3. Achieving computational fluency requires not only the memorization of basic math facts but also a deep understanding of number relationships and operations. Students who are computationally fluent can choose the most appropriate and efficient method for a given problem, demonstrate flexibility in their approach, and explain their reasoning clearly.
How to bring it to your classrooms:
- Use targeted interventions. Employ effective Tier 2 classroom interventions that go beyond memorization, such as utilizing additional online math resources, pairing visual models like number lines with fact strategies, or differentiating instruction in small groups based on specific fact strategies.
- Move through stages of learning. Ensure students build a strong foundation before advancing to more complex concepts.
- Complement classroom learning. Provide flexible complementary tools that integrate seamlessly into existing curricula.
How ORIGO can help:
Research indicates that strategic interventions are essential for developing computational fluency. Book and Box of Facts offer structured and customizable approaches to developing computational skills.
Conclusion
At ORIGO, we believe learning is a social process that requires language and discourse, and students who develop strong thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills grow into productive, innovative members of society. With ORIGO, content is taught conceptually and in a logical, learner-friendly sequence, developing deep understanding and success.
Learn more about how ORIGO can help you address these top three trends:
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