Research Question: What impact does prompted math journaling have on student understanding of Algebra concepts? How do students feel about math journaling and what are the effects on their perceived math abilities?
I would like to investigate prompted math journaling, which will require students to summarize mathematical concepts in their own words. Requiring students to reflect on their learning and explain their reasoning will allow for assessment of their understanding. Research has shown that journaling is beneficial for students and increases the depth of their understanding and improves problem solving performance. I plan on using prompted math journaling to summarize a lesson or concept. It can be incorporated in homework assignments, tickets out the door, etc. I want to explore the impact of journaling on students’ math achievement and also interview students to better understand their feelings about math journaling. I am curious to see if students will like the exercise or if students who like numbers but not writing will be put off by it. I think it may help students who struggle with computations but understand concepts gain confidence in their math abilities. I also would like to see if it affects students’ attitudes towards math as a subject.
I've never heard of math journaling - but I can immediately recognize the benefit of using journals in a math classroom. I can also easily see how you can implement this in your classroom in the Spring and it will enhance your teaching. The one thing issue I could imagine is that students may not take it seriously, but I think if you emphasize the journals as an assessment tool you could avoid this issue. I like the idea of seeing if the journals affect students' attitudes. Will you be doing interviews or some sort of survey before and after to see if it changes? I really like this idea and look forward to seeing it develop!
ReplyDeleteI also like the idea of journals or any kind of writing in math. I think you will want to "bribe" the students to do it and take it seriously....give them a grade for doing it. It might be interesting to give a choice of writing or calculating on a test question and see what they choose. Then follow up with Why?
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