Slides 31 to 36: What do
teachers need?
In order to develop
commitment to provide for advanced learners, teachers have to be provided with
multiple opportunities to advance their knowledge about advanced learners’
learning styles and the importance of mathematical challenges for meeting their
academic and emotional needs.
Also, teachers should feel
safe (mathematically and pedagogically) when dealing with this type of
mathematics (Holton et al., 2008).
Accordingly, teachers need
to be helped with enrichment tasks by providing them with appropriate learning
materials, making a large number of challenging tasks available to them, and
providing multiple opportunities to advance their math knowledge, possibly even
mentored by math professionals.
The previously suggested support
is based on the limited research related to teaching advanced learners. What is
your reaction to the suggested supports? What other supports would help
you to better accommodate advanced or twice-exceptional students?
In order to develop
students’ math potential Leikin (2011) suggests that there is a need to have
the support of the wider learning community:
•
Parental support (not
pressure) – intellectual, emotional (e.g. as Betty and Martha helped their
sons) and financial (e.g. sending a child to a good math-related after school
program / summer camp).
•
Availability of special
settings and frameworks for highly capable students in schools and out of
schools – hopefully free of charge for those without adequate financial
support.
•
The necessity of involving
technological tools that promote mathematical creativity in students and
support teachers' attempts to scaffold students’ mathematical inquiry.
•
Mathematical challenges
as a central characteristic of a learning environment that develops creativity
and promotes mathematical talent; - based on two studies by Levav-Waynberg
&Leikin (2009) where researchers examine development of mathematical
creativity and discovered that as the result of systematic implementation of
Multiple Solution Tasks in mathematical instruction, students' flexibility and
fluency significantly increased.
•
Teachers' proficiency
in choosing and managing mathematical challenges- e. g. teachers being
supported by a math professional mentor.
•
Other activities such
as math clubs, competitions, and student conferences found both in school and
out of school.
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