But I didnt learn this at school! How to prepare adults to solve - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

But I didn’t learn this at school!

How to prepare adults to solve non-routine problems Dr Damon Whitten

“But I didn’t learn this in school” Paralysis when faced with complex non-routine problems

Whitten, 2018

ALN Effective Practice Model

The defining characteristic of future workplaces is …

Change

How do we use literacy and numeracy to prepare adults for a world of constant change?

• Improvisation
• Adaptability
• Innovation
• Creative

thinking

What skills are needed in the modern environment?

Being able to deal with novel problems and situations

Grande the chimpanzee builds a three-box structure to reach a banana.

(Kohler, 1927)

Brutus the alpha male used a ‘symbolic drumming code’ to coordinate an 80- chimpanzee troop.

Tai National Park (Boesch, 1996)

But how smart are we humans?

Human ingenuity: Escape from Stalag Luft III

• Three tunnels created in

‘impossible tunnel conditions’

• The tunnels had electrical lighting,

air pumps, rope operated trolley systems and workshops

• 100 tons of soil excavated

Human ingenuity: Escape from Stalag Luft III

Materials used in construction:

• 4000 bed boards
• 52 twenty-man tables
• 34 chairs
• 635 mattresses
• 1400 milk cans stolen and used as

digging tools

Then why do we not always see human improvisation, innovation and creativity?

There are some predictable challenges that humans have when it comes to innovation and creativity.

Hint, the challenges are mostly due to being too ‘fixed’ in our thinking.

Functional fixedness

How do you tie the two strings together if you cannot reach them both at the same time?

Functional fixedness

Can you use these items to mount the candle on the wall so that it can be lit in the normal way without it toppling over?

Functional fixedness

Can you use these items to mount the candle on the wall so that it can be lit in the normal way without it toppling over?

Mental sets

Connect the nine dots with four interconnected straight lines without lifting your pencil from the page as you draw.

Mental sets

Connect the nine dots with four interconnected straight lines without lifting your pencil from the page as you draw.

Can we unteach adaptability, innovation, and creativity?

The Alternative Use Test

Guilford, 1967

A divergent thinking test and exercise.

The Alternative Use Test

Take 30 seconds to think about as many uses for a paperclip as possible.

The Alternative Use Test

I was shocked to learn that results decrease as the participants age! Adults have a tendency to become entrenched in routine ways of thinking.

Can learning maths stifle improvisation, innovation and creativity?

What about school mathematics?

Pesek & Kirshner, 2000

Method

Two groups Group 1 received five days

• f instrumental instruction
• n finding the area and

perimeter of squares, rectangles and triangles.

The Pesek and Kirshner studies

Pesek & Kirshner, 2000

Method

Two groups Group 1 received five days

• f instrumental instruction
• n finding the area and

perimeter of squares, rectangles and triangles Group 2 got to go and play! Rectangles Perimeter = 2(L + H) Area = L x H

Length Height

Pesek & Kirshner, 2000

Method

After this both groups were combined into three days of relational instruction

• Connection finding
• Concrete materials
• Discussions
• Problem solving

Pesek & Kirshner, 2000

Post test results

Group 1 scored 14.36 and demonstrated almost no transfer to new problems Group 2 scored 16.42 score showed excellent transfer to new problems

Conclusion

Instrumental mathematics interfered with learners’ ability to learn, improvise and innovate.

Schoenfeld, A. (2011). How we think. New York, NY: Routledge.

“But I didn’t learn this in school”

Whitten, 2018

So what do we do to develop improvisation, innovation, adaptability and creative thinking within the context

• f numeracy?

One way is to develop learners’ use of heuristic approaches.

Heuristics “Knowing what to do when you don’t know what to do” Gary Kasparov

• 1. Engage learners in

unknown and novel problems that they do not know how to solve

• 2. Provide them with a heuristic

method they can use to investigate, interrogate, and solve the problem

Phases of engagement

1. Work to understand the problem 2. Make a plan 3. Carry out the plan 4. Look back

What to do when you don’t know what to do

Work to understand the problem

1.

What do we know?

2.

What don’t we know?

3.

Restate the problem in your own words

4.

Draw a picture - fill in details

5.

Do you understand all the words? What are you asked to find or show?

Make a plan

• Have you seen anything like this before?
• How did you solve that problem?
• Invent a similar but solvable problem –

compare and contrast

• Could you solve part of the problem?
• Make a plan

Strategies that learners can use in the planning stage

Eliminate possibilities Solve a simpler problem Use a model Use direct reasoning Use a formula Guess and check Look for a pattern Make an orderly list Draw a picture Work backwards Be ingenious

Carry out the plan

• Carry out the plan and check each step
• Can you see clearly that the step is correct?
• Have you seen anything like this before?

Looking back (check, check, check!)

• Can you check the result?
• Can you check the argument?
• Can you use this approach to solve another

problem?

ALN Effective Practice Model

Heuristic problem-solving approaches will be integrated into numeracy professional development next year

For more information on any of the information seen here please go to:

https://ako.ac.nz/

For a full schedule of professional learning options please go to:

https://ako.ac.nz/professional-learning/alnacc/