The current issue of Bostonia (Spring 2007) includes a look at a fascinating new initiative aimed at helping immigrant elementary schoolchildren in Chelsea, Massachusetts. “Project Challenge” is a mathematics program that “makes talk in the classroom the central component of learning.”
The basic idea behind the program is that students can gain a firm grip on mathematical concepts by discussing them. Instead of being told outright whether a particular equation or solution works, for example, children are encouraged to discuss whether a proposed approach seems viable, and to explain why they think the way they do.
The results are impressive: “After three years, Project Challenge students were scoring in the nintieth percentile on standardized math tests, even better than their counterparts in wealthy Boston suburbs. Not only that, but their English and language arts scores shot up.”
This interactive approach to learning is of course familiar to those of us who teach writing. That the “workshop”-oriented classroom could be so beneficial to children learning mathematics provides particularly strong support (in case any were needed) for the advancement of communications-intensive education.
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