Activity 6.2 (Videos on Problem Solving)

In the video, Math Class Needs a Makeover, I noticed how he referenced the term perseverance as being one of five ways in which you know you’re not hitting things home in the classroom. That if your students aren’t showing initiative and perseverance in what they are trying to learn, then that's not a good thing. In this week’s PowerPoint slides one of the suggestions discussed for students to become more effective problem solvers was overcoming problem solving anxiety and to persevere and play. I thought this was a nice connection between what teachers see as a lack of students having when trying to solve problems and being one of many strategies for meta-cognition. Dan Meyer also discussed how students can go about breaking down a problem related to rates of change by using the visual image of a ski slope and fractionation. This morning I decided to put together a sofa table that I received earlier in the mail. I noticed that although there were some elements of the manual that could have been expanded upon, or more descriptive elements added to it, that it did a decent job of breaking down the process through fractionation. There were specific steps, ones that needed to be done before others. There were manageable parts; it wasn’t just one diagram with an overwhelming amount of parts added to it. Each step and coinciding picture was broken down into a simple form and there were several diagrams provided throughout the process.

Coming from a background of group facilitation/training and small group communication I had not heard of the marshmallow challenge before.  Now I want to teach a group class or do a training session just so I can use it! I was excited to see that adding a group facilitator or executive administrator to the process increased the CEO’s success rate. Ideally facilitators should be able to observe the group as a whole and identify ways in which it can work or operate more efficiently and effectively.  In addition to creating an opportunity to participate in a shared activity, collaborating with other, and solving a unique problem; it also provides a significant connection with taken-for-granted assumptions which is one of the factors that constrains non-routine thinking.  Of course I especially liked the factor that the kindergarten groups were the ones that created several prototypes before the time ran out, and did better than many other groups.