Dear students and
parents,
During the month of November, I conducted a
self-study project as a part of my ongoing education in the Master’s of
Education program at the University of Regina.
This self-study will took place during my math class where I tried two different instructional methods.
With the grade sevens I used a direct-instruction
method. This is a more traditional
instructional approach to math where a new concept was taught to the students, and
then they practiced it. The
grade eights were taught using an inquiry-based teaching approach,
where students completed activities to uncover the concepts and meanings for
themselves, with teacher guidance. My current
practice up to the beginning of this self study involved a combination of both of these methods.
I
used my own reflections for this project along with my generalized view of the results from the class. No students’
individual work or names were used in this study. My hope for this self-study is that by completing it and understanding my findings, I will be able to continuously improve my math teaching
methods, and that it will benefit both grade groups throughout the remainder of
the school year.
A very brief summary of my interpretation of the results of this study is as follows: A traditional, direct instruction method is effective in teaching students a procedural understanding of concepts. It allows students who understand the lesson as taught to succeed, but isn't as effective with students who may not have grasped the concept thoroughly during the lesson. An inquiry-based teaching approach allows the students to develop a deeper understanding of the concepts and provides more a more interesting and challenging class, thus potentially resulting in higher motivation. Moving forward I still plan on using a combination of traditional and inquiry-based instructional approaches, but I am more motivated to use inquiry-based approaches regularly.
If
you have any questions or concern regarding this self-study, please feel free
to contact me by email: timothy.sweeney@rbe.sk.ca. Thank you for your cooperation.
