Peer Teaching in Maths Problem Solving

Problem Solving in an integrated context: A group of children in a maths workshop were presented with a written maths problem around survival. This proved to be a challenge to the children as they were stumpted as to what they needed to do. After a discussion around what 'altogether' means, the children were able to recognise that they needed to add numbers together to find a total amount. A number of strategies emerged that showed a wide range of thinking. These included:

• Drawing all the objects and counting them from one (takes a very long time when the numbers are large)
• Adding all the tens together, then the ones together, then adding both of those sets together
• Starting with the biggest number and counting on from that

Children explained their strategy to each other and they were recorded (whiteboard and window). Seeing children model strategies is much more powerful than listening to a teacher demonstrate and explain from the front of a room.

Another problem was posed with the following strategies being used:

• Counting all the objects from one
• Counting on from the biggest number
• Rounding up to the nearest ten, adding the second number, then subtracting the amount that was rounded up (adding with ten is an easy and quick strategy)

During a follow up maths workshop children were given another written maths problem. Without any prompting children were able to analyse what the problem was asking them to do and they started using different strategies they hadn't used before, from being exposed to them from the explanations given by the children.

The power of peers learning off one another was very evident here. Child led learning in a minimally invasive way proved successful. A new strategy was not 'taught' but explored and practiced without teacher direction. Also the need to base maths problems in real life contexts was evident. The world asks us to first figure out how to solve a problem before actually solving it. Being faced with numeric equations limits our ability to problem solve in the real world.