Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics, Grades K-12: 14 Teaching Practices for Enhancing Learning (Corwin Mathematics Series)

by Peter Liljedahl

So, you say that we can give worked solutions—but not right away. Should we do this? And if so, when? First, to make sure we are all on the same page, we need to differentiate between answers and worked solutions. x = 7 is an answer. It reveals nothing about how we arrived at that solution. How we arrived at that solution is the worked solution. The research showed that giving worked solutions became more and more important the more complex the questions were. This corresponds loosely with an increase in grade level, but not exactly. The research also showed that worked solutions should not be given out until the students have had a chance to work on the questions, checked the answer they arrived at against the answers provided, and, if needed, retried the questions—sometimes multiple times. As mentioned above, if we give the worked solution at the same time as the question, some students will read the solution and think that, because they understand what is happening, they understand how to do it on their own. However, if the worked solutions are provided the next day, or a few days after, the students now have a chance to compare their thinking to that of the worked solution as well as to get help with any questions they were unable to resolve on their own. Many teachers I worked with gave out worked solutions by posting them on a class website or portal.

Mits