LLED 360

I think that asking open ended questions in a math class can be particularly important and beneficial. Often it is the case that students can come to the correct answers without having any real understanding of the material. Open ended questions can be used to more accurately evaluate whether students are really comprehending the material whereas ‘display’ questions have the possibility of hiding misunderstandings. Additionally, I think that they provide examples that are similar to think-alouds. With the open ended questions, students are able to hear how their peers think and reason their way through problems in addition to the way they are hopefully already hearing their teacher think and reason. They provide opportunities for teachers to correct erroneous understandings that many students may have which helps the teacher address the entire class at once rather than waiting for an assessment where students have made mistakes to realize their mistakes.

Zwiers also talks about the need to avoid creating an atmosphere where students look to the teachers as the validator and corrector of responses. This is something that commonly happens in a math class, I think partially because students tend to lack self-esteem when it comes to math. In other classes I have read articles where authors talk about the tendency of students to look to teachers, textbooks, or other forms of  ‘authority’ to validate their answers rather than thinking critically and validating their answers themselves. I think if students can be taught to participate in thoughtful classroom discussions they will also be better equipped to thoughtfully analyze  and evaluate their own written responses which will have the effect of making them a better math student.