Emerging Technology that Supports Critical Thinking and Problem Solving (Blog Post 6)

Being a math teacher, problem solving is extremely important. Although, it is sometimes difficult to teach. I can model techniques for them such as working backwards, creating a chart, guess and check, or drawing a picture. But it is left up to them to decide what the best method is for individual problems. The chapter did a great job explaining what problem solving is and the importance of it in the classroom, but the discussion on the topic on inquiry learning was vague. It is an extremely powerful strategy. If students can figure out on their own the concept at hand, they will have ownership and a better understanding of the concept. Inquiry is difficult to do with many of the math concepts that I teach. However, just the other day, through guided questions, students were able to deduce the rule for taking the square root of a variable raised to a power. Because of this method, they have mastered this concept.