Private Universe Project 2: TEACHERS BUILDING PROOFS

This video takes place in Englewood NJ. The principal has invited Arthur Powell, Associate Professor at Rutgers University - Newark, to work with Englewood teachers, grades K through eight. She hires Arthur Powell to implement a professional development initiative that encourages teachers and students to think deeply about problems and to justify and convince others about their solutions.

The goal of the workshop:
1) Introducing teachers to a new way of working in the classroom; having them pay careful and close attention to what students actually do and say.
2) To have teachers rethink how they view themselves in front of mathematics.

During the workshop, Arthur asked the teachers to work on combinations problems such as - How many different towers four blocks high can you make by selecting from blocks of two colors? For each solution, teachers explained and attempted to convince the others that they had found all possible towers, four high.

The main focuse of this video is getting to the idea of teaching mathematics; the improtantce to get involved in looking for justifications. The basic idea of mathematics is the idea that we can look at patterns and relationships and try to understand the underlying reasons why those patterns and relationships exist, given the particular mathematical objects. And in reasoning - in understanding why they exist - one is developing ideas of proof.

Often teachers teach to teach the lesson. It is important to teach the skills and the thinking process to help understand why things happen. Students may know how to solve a problem but it is also important to understand and be able to explain why their solution is correct.