Making Math Transdisciplinary

Now that we were attempting to fully implement the IB Programme at our school, we were still struggling with making our units of inquiry “transdisciplinary”. How can we continue to address the concepts, central ideas, or lines of inquiry throughout the day across ALL subject areas? Some subjects naturally lent themselves to particular units and were thus easier to embed. Math was the content area that seemed to be giving us our biggest challenge. The Farmdale TIIP Team decided to focus on trainings that would help us address this question in the mathematics content area.

Texas IB Schools (TIBS) - The Role of Mathematics

The Texas IB Schools (TIBS) Mathematics training allowed us to better understand how to teach mathematics using an inquiry approach as well as how mathematics can be addressed within and outside of the context of the programme of inquiry. The goal is for our students to be able to construct and transfer meaning, and then apply what they learn to real life contexts. We learned that mathematical concepts and/or skills ideally, should be taught within the unit of inquiry if they are necessary to further the learning or understanding of the central idea of the unit. However, there will be some skills or concepts that we will have to address outside of the context of the inquiry, yet teachers can use the same cognitive and inquiry-based strategies to teach them. 

Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) Institute

After our TIBS mathematics training, we now had a better understanding about the role of mathematics in our units of inquiry. Yet, now that we were moving away from simply following the lessons from Teacher’s Guides, we were asking ourselves “How can we change our teaching practices to develop students who are critical thinkers and inquirers?”  We were now challenging our students to construct and transfer meaning, and then apply what they learned across ALL content areas. With our goal of tackling mathematics first, we needed some inquiry-based teaching and questioning strategies that focused on mathematics but could also be applied to other content areas. The Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) Institute through the UCLA Mathematics Project helped “guide” us through our journey. At the institute our team learned:

• how to set up problems, provocations and/or learning engagements with multiple entry points (this allowed for all students to be able to actively participate in problem solving and sharing their observations, strategies, and thinking)
• how to question and facilitate discussions (which allowed the students do most of the talking, sometimes by simply saying, “Tell us more about that.”) 
• strategies for developing students who are able to explain and document their thinking orally and on paper (this directly connects to the development of the IB Learner Profiles some of which are being communicators, thinkers, and knowledgeable)

CGI Strategy:  Four Squares – “What doesn’t belong?  Why?”

TIBS - The Exhibition

Exhibition is the culminating project which encapsulates the students' entire understanding of what it means to be an IB learner. Students drive the inquiry process with support from school staff who serve as the students' mentors. The TIBS Exhibition training helped us to network with teachers who had over 7 years experience with Exhibition and still had many questions. We learned that Exhibition looks different at every school and that the process would focus more on the "journey," not the destination. We trained the 5th grade teachers and staff on their role in Exhibition, but the true learning came when the entire school went through the six month process. With much trepidation the staff stood by as student groups proudly presented their group projects in the form of PowerPoint presentations, plays, and videos to both school and community. We were amazed at the students' ability to articulate their learning with such maturity and poise. Parents were overwhelmed with pride. After two years of completing Exhibition, it continues to be an ongoing learning experience that we refine and reflect on each year, and our program was jump-started by attending this conference!

Computer Using Educators (CUE) Conference in Palm Springs

The Computer Using Educators (CUE) conference gave us the opportunity to learn up to date information on current technology and its application to classroom and school situations. As part of the UCLA TIIP grant we purchased technology including ipads and tablets that enabled us to incorporate more technology in the classroom, but we needed more ideas. All team members attended different workshops and then shared their learning with each other. One of the most immediate applications was with the mentoring of the students' Exhibition project. As mentors we tend to guide students to do projects that are within our comfort level, but the students of today want to explore new technology. The CUE conference enabled us to bring those ideas directly to our students. As a result, the movies created inspired other teachers to inquire with us about how they could implement these ideas. The TIIP team will offer small technology workshops at the beginning of next school year to educate our colleagues on different ways they can incorporate technology in their classrooms. Next year's Exhibition is sure to be raised to another level.

North American Reggio Emilia Alliance Conference (NAREA)

Through our TIIP work, we have learned a lot about IB and inquiry-based instruction. Yet, some of the challenges primary teachers (Pre-K - 1st) have expressed include: “What does inquiry look like in the early primary grades?" and "How do we address the ‘research’ and ‘assessment’ portion of the IB curriculum for the younger children?”  One of our team members attended the North American Reggio Emilia Alliance Conference to help us answer these questions.  The majority of the conference was held at Mid-Pacific Institute in Honolulu, Hawaii.  There, conference attendees were able to visit the Preschool/Elementary School classrooms to see how the teachers are implementing and adapting the Reggio approach to their school community.

NAREA Summer Conference 2013, Oahu, Hawaii - Reggio Inspired spaces and languages that allowed for dialogue and learning.

The Reggio Emilia philosophy focuses on children being co-constructors of knowledge and the classroom environment being organized around the questions and inquiries from the children. In addition, teachers guide the inquiry through questioning, documenting, reflecting and providing the opportunities for children to hypothesize and research. Originally the Reggio Emilia approach was geared toward infant and Pre-School aged children, yet many Pre-K -12th grade schools have been inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach as a means to inquiry-based instruction. The IB philosophy for the Primary Years Programme borrows and shares many of the philosophical underpinnings from Reggio Emilia. For example, the IB Framework indicates that children as inquirers, need environments and provocations that will engage them and allow for children to question, explore, and inquire. Instruction and inquiry revolve around the students’ questions and wonderings. Teachers and students constantly reflect on their learning and teachers and students document their learning.