Focused Reflection

The Four Cs:

Critical thinking and problem solving
Communication
Collaboration
Creativity and Innovation

Critical thinking and problem solving:

Learning critical thinking leads students to develop other skills, such as a higher
level of concentration, deeper analytical abilities, and improved thought
processing. (National Education Association (NEA), 2017) As drawn upon in the
pedagogy map and the general capabilities, mathematics include a wide variety
of opportunities for students to demonstrate critical thinking and problem
solving. It is my job as a teacher to provide and promote these pedagogical
opportunities to the students to improve their future and employability. One
possible way to achieve this would be to design a lesson where students are
completing worded problem solving questions. This would encourage the
students to apply their previous mathematical knowledge to these problems, and
find the best and most appropriate solution. From a pedagogical perspective,
these opportunities would fit into the modification or redefinition level on the
SAMR Model. This is because the students are experiencing the lesson first hand,
with opportunities to demonstrate higher order thinking processes.

Communication:
Articulate thoughts and ideas effectively using oral, written, and nonverbal
communication skills in a variety of forms and contexts (NEA, 2017)
Communication plays a major role in mathematics, and opportunities should
arise in these classes to promote student development. To achieve this growth, a
design project could be created, combining three or four students into groups.
From here, students would be working together as a team, talking about their
own ideas and their own unique approach to the design task before them.
Pedagogically, this approach to communication would be in the modification level
on the SAMR model, as students are working together in a group to achieve
learning goals. This approach could also be in the redefinition level if
collaboration was included.

Collaboration:
Demonstrate ability to work effectively and respectfully with diverse teams
(NEA, 2017) Collaboration and communication work together in the classroom to
develop students and is pedologically advanced. To achieve these high levels of
pedagogy, there a variety of activities that can be done in the classroom to
promote student collaboration. One such method is for students to be conducting
group projects together. These can be on a variety of topics such as the
relationship between crime rates and poverty (as provided in the NEAs Guide to
the four Cs). the results the students find to these problems can be shared
digitally with other students and the wider community to achieve the redefinition
level of pedagogy as per the SAMR Model.

Creativity and Innovation:

If students leave school without knowing how to continuously create and
innovate, they will be underprepared for the challenges of society and the
workforce. (NEA, 2017) Creativity and innovation play major roles in todays
society, and thus needs to be backed up by our teachers and students in our
classrooms also. To achieve this development of the creativity of our next
generation, design projects can be utilised as forms of assessment. This will
encourage students to don their creative hats, and produce new and innovative
ways to solve problems; using their own ideas and prior knowledge of
mathematical concepts. Students can then find new and interesting ways to
share their solutions such as online or via emails to promote collaboration. When
these two are combined, we have a teaching style that is pedologically
advanced, fitting into the redefinition level of the SAMR Model.

References:
National Education Association, An Educators Guide to the Four Cs, Retrieved
from http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/A-Guide-to-Four-Cs.pdf