Posters: A Tool to Foster Visual and Communication Skills Through Mathematical Challenging Tasks Using a Gallery Walk

Abstract

The society is evolving posing continuous challenges that demand the development of a specific set of skills and knowledge of its citizens. These core competencies involve problem solving, creativity, communication, critical thinking, collaboration, that must be incorporated in the teachers' practice and developed by students. So, teachers must orchestrate productive discussions around the solution of tasks that allow multiple solutions (including visual ones). Students don't all have the same types of thinking, some are more analytical, others prefer visual approaches. This implies the use of strategies that meet the different types of thinking displayed by the students, confronting them with tasks that challenge them to see outside of the box. We introduced posters to foster students' learning as a tool that enable visualization and stimulate communication, through a Gallery Walk (GW), as an active learning instructional strategy. The GW allows students to solve a task, collaboratively, given them the opportunity to present, discuss and assess solutions in a poster placed around the classroom, in a similar perspective to that used by artists when they expose their works in a gallery. In this paper we share an ongoing study carried out with future elementary teachers (6-12 years old) where a GW was implemented that aims to characterize the strategies used by the students (future teachers) when solving tasks with multiple solutions, in particular to identify the visual solutions, and to characterize the reaction during their engagement in this GW strategy. An exploratory qualitative approach was adopted, collecting data through written productions (solutions, posters, comments to the posters), observations and a written report. The results showed that students enjoyed this experience, allowed to identify that students privileged visuals solutions of the tasks, and posters are a potential tool for assessment, through peer feedback, and allowed to verify the potentialities of the GW for a more effective teaching and learning of mathematics.

Solving Problems through Engineering Design: An Exploratory Study with Pre-Service Teachers

“…Tasks play a central role in the activity carried out in the classroom and in achieving an effective teaching and learning of mathematics. We can find clear suggestions in the literature that highlight the value and potential of rich and challenging tasks [14][15][16] to engage students in productive struggle and widen their understanding [9]. Good mathematical tasks give students the opportunity to learn meaningfully, using mathematical and non-mathematical concepts, ideas and abilities, in an integrated way [16].…”

“…We can find clear suggestions in the literature that highlight the value and potential of rich and challenging tasks [14][15][16] to engage students in productive struggle and widen their understanding [9]. Good mathematical tasks give students the opportunity to learn meaningfully, using mathematical and non-mathematical concepts, ideas and abilities, in an integrated way [16]. Multiple-solution tasks, that can be solved by the use of different strategies, may help accomplish this goal, meeting the diversity of students' learning styles, encouraging the development of mathematical knowledge, flexibility and creativity [14,17].…”

“…"Student perceptions of engineering and technology, their understanding of engineering, and their understanding of relevant science are greatly improved by participation in engineering activities" [40] (pp. [15][16].…”

The Effect of Visual Reasoning on Arithmetic Word Problem Solving

“…In a more recent contribution, [24] highlighted the significance of visual approaches through examples of mathematical tasks that pose challenges and offer multiple solutions. The emphasis on visual strategies underscores the growing acknowledgment of the role of visualization in enhancing mathematical comprehension and problem solving.…”

“…The emphasis on visual strategies underscores the growing acknowledgment of the role of visualization in enhancing mathematical comprehension and problem solving. Recognizing the pivotal role of teachers in shaping the quality of mathematical instruction, [24] focused on pre-service teachers, arguing that teacher education programs should expose them to experiences mirroring those they will later facilitate for their students. This exposure is seen as instrumental in enhancing their understanding of the challenges associated with visualization.…”