Part 1: Spreadsheets for Dummies!
Todays sesssion introduces spreadsheets as a powerful tool in the Mathematics classroom. We focus on the the theory, the what/how and why of spreadsheets, with some hands on practice on the essential practices of spreadsheets, the calculators of the 21st Century. Tomorrow's session Part 2: 'Using Spreadsheets to Support Mathematical Thinking', focuses on how we use these in the classroom in the Junior School, where you can try out some of the activities we use with our Grade 4 and Grade 5 students.
Spreadsheets - especially Google Sheets are calculators for the 21st Century. So often spreadsheets are used for little more than glorified graphing tools. What if we used spreadsheets to transform 'calculators'? What if we used spreadsheets for what they were designed for, namely as transformative, heuristic, problem solving tools.
"Ellington found that the effects were much higher when [spreadsheets] were involved in the teaching process; for example, when used for composition problem solving, the effects were d = 0.72: "When compared with students who did not use [spreadsheets], students in treatment groups were able to solve more problems and make better decisions with regard to selecting methods for generating solutions"
Hattie, Visible Learning p146
The pedagogical use of spreadsheets improves students basic skills both in completing exercises and problem solving. They help relieve students' traditional dislike of problems expressed in words by reducing the cognitive load of having to compute as well as problem solve.
This session will focus on ways to transform the teaching of problem solving in Mathematics through the transformative use of ICT, through the application of simple but powerful frameworks like RAT, TPACK, & SAMMS.
This session may surprise you, and it will inspire you; the best part? No previous experience of spreadsheets needed! Just come with a willingness to learn and a laptop.
