Discovering Teaching as a Profession
Austin Passmore
Annotated Bibliographies
These annotations are the sources that I found in my research that describes the use of brain teasers in the classroom.
Citation
Rao, A. (2014). REASONING IN GEOMETRY THROUGH SMULLYAN. Mathematics Teaching, (238), 27.
Annotation
This article discusses a technique for teaching logic to students. The author, Rao, learned this technique at an ATM conference from the book The Islands of Professor Smullyan by logician Raymond Smullyan. The technique was to look at the most important sentence in a logic puzzle and to simplify it and any contradictions. Rao tested it by giving two logic puzzles to her Year 7 students and told them to focus on being able to convince the other students of their answer. This technique helped teach the 11-year-old students how to solve logic puzzles. Rao states that this technique can be used when teaching geometry.
Potential Quotes
“The skill was in finding the one crucial statement that was a contradiction or that had the key, usually hidden beneath layers of other statements.” p.27
“This was a skill, it dawned on me, that students needed to use in a variety of topics, not least geometrical reasoning.” p.27
“That weekend my inbox was packed with questions from excited 11-year-olds, asking for hints, expressing exultation at having solved a puzzle and frustration at not having solved another. At school, the class was abuzz.” p.27
Source Evaluation
This article is from the scholarly magazine Mathematics Teaching. The article is written by a mathematics teacher that received the information in her article from an ATM conference, and cites credible logician Raymond Smullyan. This article was also found in Galileo’s database.
Reflection
My research this year will be focused on how logic puzzles and brain teasers affect students. This article shows how logic puzzles create excitement within students and make learning fun while being challenging. This article also revealed a technique in teaching logic to students that I will use in class.
Citation
Lissau, R. (2013). ROOKIE MATH TEACHER EXCITED. Daily Herald.
Annotation
This article is about a new math teacher named Maggie Sharp. She graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a bachelor’s in mathematics and a minor in secondary education. She is excited to teach because she thinks she knows how to change students’ minds about math. She focuses on the “art of problem solving”. Sharp likes to use problem-solving activities to build a love of math in students. She even plans to use straws and tape for her first lesson.
Potential Quotes
“‘I see mathematics as the art of problem-solving, and I want to provide students opportunities to engage with this on a deeper level.’”
“I believe that education should provide students with meaningful opportunities to engage with challenging and interesting problems that help them grow as individuals, leaders and a community of learners.”
“To reach kids – that’s the ultimate goal.”
Source Evaluation
This source is credible because it was archived in the Questia School database. It also was published recently in 2013. This article was also published in a credible newspaper.
Reflection
This source shows the exact perspective of the use of brain teasers and problem solving activities of my project, and it comes from a real teacher. It also shows the thoughts of a new teacher, which I could include in my project to reference my mentorship. It also has quotes that would be good to include somewhere on my website.
Citation
Dunphy, S., Whisenand, T. (2010). ACCELERATING STUDENT LEARNING OF TECHNOLOGY TERMS: THE CROSSWORD
PUZZLE EXERCISE. Journal of Information Systems Education. 21.
Annotation
This article discusses how crossword puzzles affect student learning of vocabulary. It begins by describing the views of using puzzles in education. Then, it describes an experiment designed by the authors. The authors gave their students a list of vocabulary words to learn that would be on their test in a week. Half of the students were given access to crossword puzzles as a study tool, and each student had to turn in at least one completed puzzle before the quiz. After the first quiz, the experiment was repeated, but the students’ roles were reversed. Now, the students who were not given crossword puzzles had access, and the ones who were given puzzles no longer had access. After the second quiz, statistical analysis was conducted for the grades of both quizzes, and it was found that student who used the crossword puzzles tended to have higher scores. Also, a survey about the use of the puzzles was given to the students, and it was found that the students strongly agreed that the crossword puzzles were a good learning tool.
Potential Quotes
“[Crossword puzzles] may be especially useful in assisting students with lower level objectives as they attempt to gain factual knowledge and develop comprehension.”
“In his doctoral study, Clifford C. Morris found that there was a positive relationship between students mastering mathematic vocabulary and their use of
vocabulary oriented activities (VOA's).”
“Not all educators agree on the usefulness of puzzles in education. Professor Kelly Bootle belittles the use of puzzles claiming “Anything Su Duko, I can do better,” (Kelly Bootle, 2005).”
“The crossword puzzle exercise may prove to be a meaningful learning experience for building, understanding, and improving retention of the nomenclature of technology first inside the classroom and then beyond.”
Source Evaluation
This source is credible because it was found on a scholarly research database (Questia School), and was found under peer-reviewed journals. It was published recently in an academic educational journal, and was written by university professors. This article also contains statistical analysis of data from an experiment conducted by the authors.
Reflection
This year, my research will be on how brain teasers and puzzles can improve education. This article shows how a type of puzzle enhances the ability of students to learn and retain information. This article shows that puzzles do not only help in math classes, but also can be useful in on subjects. It also shows that puzzles can be positive learning tools even at high levels of learning, as the experiment mentioned in the article was conducted using college students learning high level vocabulary.