Improving Mathematical Problem Solving

Based on extensive research, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) has published a practice guide that provides five recommendations for improving students’ mathematical problem solving. This guide is geared toward teachers, math coaches, other educators, and curriculum developers who want to improve the mathematical problem solving of students.

The foundation for success in advanced mathematics is built on problem solving skills. Problem solving requires strong skills in reasoning, analysis, and argument construction, and the ability to apply innovative strategies to find a solution.

To help students become skilled problem solvers, teachers can:

• prepare problems to use in whole-class instruction
• provide explicit problem-solving instruction that teaches students to use visual representations, employ multiple strategies, and links mathematical concepts and notation to problems
• allow time to reflect and debrief on their strategies and solutions with classmates

While these skills should be taught at all levels, it's especially important to help students develop them as progress toward the more complex math concepts they will learn in high school.
Problem solving skills are essential for students as they progress through the entire mathematics curriculum. Students who develop proficiency in mathematical problem solving early are better prepared for advanced mathematics and other complex problem-solving tasks. Unfortunately, when compared with students in other countries, students in the U.S. are less prepared to solve mathematical problems.
Problem solving involves reasoning and analysis, argument construction, and the development of innovative strategies. These abilities are used not only in advanced mathematics topics — such as algebra, geometry and calculus—but also throughout the entire mathematics curriculum beginning in kindergarten, as well as in subjects such as science.
Pepper has released a new workshop focused on Improving Mathematical Problem Solving as part of it’s new Pepper Online Workshop (POW!) content. By taking this workshop you will explore strategies to help students become skilled problem solvers. Participants will be understand and take a deeper look at the three components involved in teaching problem solving to students.

You can check all of our new POW content by visiting the Courses and Workshops section on your dashboard.

The Value of Arts Integration

Learning through the arts is an exciting way to engage students. But integrating the arts into your curriculum can be more than just an engagement strategy. The arts can cross a multitude of grade levels and disciplines and reach a wide variety of learners. Critical thinking, risk taking, and collaboration are just some of the areas where Bates Middle School educators report big improvements since integrating the arts.

Bates Middle School in Annapolis, Maryland got started with Arts Integration as part of a school-wide turnaround effort. Edutopia highlighted this middle school as part of its “Schools that Work” feature. “The school made changes in schedules, funding, and even the approach to community and parent involvement. Most important, the teachers had to change. Through intensive and continual professional development, teachers now are able to engage students in content they previously found uninteresting. The transformation was successful because every teacher integrated arts into their teaching.”

Creating a learning environment that fosters and encourages creativity requires teachers to be creative too. Edutopia’s feature on Bates Middles School, Integrate the Arts, Deepen the Learning provides some tips for teachers wanting to pursue arts integration:

• Take advantage of professional development: PD serves many purposes. It can help teachers learn the fundamentals of various art forms and develop integrated lessons, and it provides them with the opportunity to experience art for themselves.
• Use AI intentionally: At Bates, every teacher is required to use AI in some shape or form, although not every lesson needs to be, or should be, taught with AI. Teachers should use two main criteria for implementing AI:
• Look for a natural fit with the content.
• Identify where students are struggling. AI can provide a context that will help students build connections and gives them triggers for remembering the content later.
• Collaborate and brainstorm: Brainstorming is one of the best ways to develop arts-integrated lessons.

Pepper Professional Development Courses and Workshops and the Resource Library can help provide support as you think about arts integration in the classroom. Arts Integration provides a great opportunity to engage and excite students and can be an effective way to differentiate instruction. At Pepper we're adding new courses and workshops regularly so we can support educators in reaching students and creating lifelong learners.

Encouraging Girls in Math and Science

Although there is a general perception that men do better than women in math and science, researchers have found that the differences between women’s and men’s math- and science-related abilities and choices are much more subtle and complex than a simple “men are better than women in math and science." The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) has found that to encourage girls in math and science we need to:

• understand their beliefs about their abilities in these areas
• find a way to spark and maintain greater interest in these topics
• build skills that are related to other interest areas

Students’ choices to pursue careers in math and science reflect multiple influences that accumulate over time. In general, researchers have found that girls and women have less confidence in their math abilities than males do and that from early adolescence, girls show less interest in math or science careers. Women are less involved in career paths and post-secondary education in some areas of math and science than men. This pattern starts at school.The IES has identified practices that elementary, middle, and high school teachers can implement during instruction that they believe would increase the likelihood that girls and women will not prematurely decide that careers in math and science are not for them.

National Center for Education Research and the Institute of Education Sciences have published a Practice Guide, published on WestEd's website, that explores what can teachers do to encourage girls to choose career paths in math- and science-related fields. The report presents five research-based instructional and feedback strategies for teachers at all grade levels:

• Teach that abilities are expandable
• Provide prescriptive, informational feedback
• Show students female role models
• Spark curiosity
• Teach spatial skills

Pepper has released a new workshop focused on Strategies to Engage Girls in Math and Science as part of it’s new Pepper Online Workshop (POW!) content. By taking this workshop you will explore strategies for keeping girls engaged in courses of study related to Math and Science. Participants will be guided through the process of developing a plan for actively motivating and maintaining girl’s interest in Math and Science. You can check all of our new POW content by visiting the Courses and Workshops section on your dashboard.