MathsCraft: Session Leader Workshop

David Wood

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  •  21 Nov 2018 - 25 Nov 2018
     2:00 pm - 5:00 pm

 

Organisers: Anthony Harradine (ACEMS, Potts-Baker Institute,Prince Alfred College), Anita Ponsaing (ACEMS, University of Melbourne), Nigel Bean (ACEMS, University of Adelaide).

Program Description:

This professional development event will give you more information about the MathsCraft program, and equip you to become a leader of MathsCraft sessions in your area.

What is MathsCraft?

In their work, research mathematicians do not generally:

  • Sit competitions
  • Have daily lessons or lectures
  • Study for tests and exams

So what do they do? Among other things, they use previously learned facts and know-how to build solutions to problems, problems that they initially have no idea how to solve.

In MathsCraft sessions, teachers and students get to do just this, in a supportive, collaborative, conversation rich environment. The MathsCraft session leader poses problems, provokes participants and organises the sharing of the ideas that come up in the group. The problems are constructed to give students and teachers an authentic experience of doing mathematical research, at their level.

MathsCraft sessions have been running since 2012, led by Anthony Harradine, Director of the Potts–Baker Institute at Prince Alfred College, Adelaide. Since 2015, in collaboration with ACEMS, sessions have been held in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, at schools and at universities.

More about MathsCraft

Who might be a good session leader?

A MathsCraft session leader might be a secondary teacher of mathematics who:

  • Likes mathematics;
  • Is generally inquisitive;
  • Is not afraid of problems that they cannot solve;
  • Believes that students can solve problems by themselves, if the problems are appropriate;
  • Is interested in learning how to help students develop reasoned responses to a problem, as opposed to providing them with solutions;
  • Wants to learn more than they already know.

What you will get out of it / your commitment

This training workshop will give you the knowledge and resources needed to be a MathsCraft Session Leader and run MathsCraft sessions on your own. You will have to be willing to conduct 2 MathsCraft sessions in 2019, and have your school’s support to do so. We will provide ongoing support for the running of these sessions.

The approaches used in MathsCraft sessions can be applied more generally to the everyday classroom. This workshop will include sessions that illustrate how topics like Pythagoras Theorem can be transformed into a research-like experience for students.

Official Professional Development certification will be provided by the University of Adelaide.

To express interest in applying for this workshop, please contact Anita Ponsaing <anita.ponsaing@unimelb.edu.au>

Program Details and Materials:
Below is the Program Structure. Please click to enlarge.

Registration:

  • Deadline: 21 September 2018
  • Registration is by invitation only

Participant List:
Dylan Agnew (Kadina Memorial School)
Neil Anderson (Teachers Institute NSW 224946)
Ivo Correia (Indooroopilly State School)
Veronica Kucharski (Indooroopilly State School)
Naomi Kuchel (Thebarton Senior College)
Janine Lake (Catherine McAuley College)
Anne McInerney (Education Queensland)
Lorenza Morello (Xavier College)
Constantin Naum (Woodville High School)
Wayne Philp (Trinity College Gawler, SA)
Ross Slater (Girton Grammar School)
Emma Weber (St Peter’s Girls School, SA)
Chris Drew (Prince Alfred College)
Jacqui Lee (Ruyton Girls School)
Adam Morrissey (St Joseph’s College Geelong)
Anja van Hooydonk (QAMT)
Sue Holmes (Methodist Ladies’ College, Melbourne)
Jennifer Flegg (University of Melbourne)
Anthony Mays (University of Melbourne)
Jason Whyte  (University of Melbourne)
Jan de Gier (University of Melbourne)
Anita Ponsaing (University of Melbourne)
Anthony Harradine (Prince Alfred College)
Nigel Bean (University of Adelaide)
Amie Albrecht (University of South Australia)
TriThang Tran (University of Melbourne)
Daniel Mathews (Monash University)
Tim Chan (Monash University)