How many kittens are born in Kingston each year?” The question, recently asked of a group of students from an under-performing primary school in the Corporate Area, may seem to be impossible to correctly answer without more information. But according to math experts in the Ministry of Education, it’s a quantity that can actually be estimated without the need for further context.
And estimate the students did.
“The responses were very interesting. One child estimated that if there are about 100,000 people living in Kingston and since many people don’t like cats, that only about a quarter of the population would have a cat, which means there are about 25,000 cats,” math coach Yanique Campbell said.
“With only half of that number being females and, on average, bearing a litter of five, then the conclusion is that 62,500 cats are born each year,” she continued, explaining the student’s rationale.
This type of task, popularly known as Fermi Problems or Fermi Questions, challenges students to make rough estimations about aspects of the natural world. It’s an approach the expert team of Ministry of Education maths coaches — Yanique Campbell, Simone Williams and Camielle Michael-Patterson — recently introduced to teachers of three new primary schools participating in the iLead educational leadership programme at a workshop organised by the JN Foundation.
“We need to engage students in estimation activities and provide them with opportunities to work with large numbers and allow them to use those numbers in a real context so that they can understand how to reason in real situations,” underscored Williams.
“The kind of classroom you want to create is one in which there is a high level of tolerance for risks so that students can learn by discovering,” she said. “And a classroom where there are high expectations and positive discussion and feedback.”
Against that background, the coaches urged teachers to organise their classrooms in a manner that gives more praise to students for their efforts rather than the abilities they seem to have, in order to encourage more learning by discovery. In addition, they recommended that teachers should grade for growth, providing feedback to students on the improvements they make.
“You have to give them space to practise in a meaningful way, where they can reason and extend their understanding of main ideas,” Williams advised.
Practise must focus also on depth rather than drill, the coaches recommended, and it should be novel so that students can have variety.
For her part, Michael-Patterson emphasised the need to focus on linking mathematical concepts to procedures, even in a context where instructions are being given to students.
“Retention is greatly enhanced when students have sound reasons for carrying out procedures. Therefore, they have to be made to understand why they are doing what they do,” she said.
The iLead programme, led by the JN Foundation in partnership with the Ministry of Education, is being implemented in 10 schools across the parishes of Portland, St Thomas and St Mary, as a means of improving leadership as well as teaching and learning.
The schools, which were selected based on the National Education Inspectorate’s conclusion that they were in need of support, are: Brimmer Vale and Horace Clarke high schools, as well as Port Maria, Retreat and Martin primary schools in St Mary; Happy Grove High, Windsor Castle Primary and Junior High and Buff Bay Primary in Portland; along with St Thomas Technical and Robert Lightbourne high schools in St Thomas.
Source: Jamaica Observer