Claire Duffield

The most impactful learning is done when students are able to ask questions and explore content before getting all the answers, as endorsed by Piaget. Inquiry-based learning provides a space for students to collaborate with their peers and make their own discoveries and this promotes student-student connections as well as student agency. When students are able to take control of their learning, they are more likely to be engaged with the material and make meaningful connections from the activities to the content. I believe this practice is particularly important in a mathematics classroom because too often the “why” behind math gets lost. It is important to know how to carry out a computation, but it is just as important to understand why mathematical computation to performed and how we know that it works. Having students work together to solve a problem by “getting their hands dirty” with math is the best way for students to make those “why” and “how” connections in a way that makes sense to them.

Stereotypes have put students of color, women, and students with disabilities into fixed boxes in terms of education and caused these groups to be underrepresented in STEM. As a woman of color, I know how it feels to have people predetermine your level of academic achievement based on your race and gender and how those expectations can have a lasting effect on how you view yourself and your education. Interrupting stereotype threat is something I am fully committed to practicing in my classroom. One way to incorporate this is to educate my students about a diverse group of historical mathematicians so they can see that themselves represented. This will not only encourage minorities to break out of the box they have been put in to, but it will give all students a deeper understanding of the diverse people who have made contributions to the field of mathematics.

Lastly, I want students to know that they can be good at math. Students and adults alike always tell me “I’m not a math person” or “I can’t do math” and I think that stems from that fixed mindset that a person is born with certain strengths and that new strengths can’t be developed. The idea of struggling with math is turned into the idea that learning unfamiliar mathematical concepts is an unobtainable goal. Carol Dweck’s research has shown that when a student’s fixed mindset is switched to a growth mindset, they are more likely to persist past obstacles and to strive for achievement even when it’s hard. By implementing inquiry-based learning and disrupting stereotype threat in my classroom, I hope to instill a growth mindset in my students to promote active learning and strive for excellence.