“Life is good for only two things, discovering mathematics and
 teaching mathematics”-  Simon Poisson

Meaningful learning means to help students to learn how to recognize and solve problems, comprehend new phenomena, construct mental models of those phenomena, and given a new situation, set goals and regulate their own learning and use technologies to engage students in active, constructive, intentional, authentic, and cooperative learning.

It is a classroom which allows a student to play the role of an experienced co-researcher rather than of someone with all the answers. The teacher gives enough hints and poses probing questions; offers encouragement for good thinking, notjust for right answers. Treat answers, right and wrong, as discussion topics until the class – the research team – reaches a consensus.

Here, the goal is for students to experience mathematics as a process of finding and connecting ideas so that justifying ideas and problem solving become more important than the actual solutions;the teacher spends time in planning and thinking of how students might address the problem under investigation; andthe teacher leads students to know that the thinking and problem-solving skills they develop can serve them in all aspects of their lives.

The effectiveness of a teaching strategy and method can be measured if the students’ ability to perform the desired competencies. It should transfer learning and use whatever concepts and skills learned to solve a similar or related problem;  Learners can accomplish tasks that require higher order thinking skills, and appreciate the application of the concept or principle to real-life situations.

Some of the Inquiry Based teaching strategies are:

►   Concept mappingis a diagram or network indicating interrelationships among concepts and representing conceptual frameworks within a specific domain of knowledge.Here, the nodes represent concepts, the lines linking the nodes represent relationships, and the labels on the lines represent the nature of the relationships.

►   Flow charting-an outline of the sequence of processes in diagram form

►   Hands-on, experimenting first-hand with physical objects in the environment and having concrete experience before learning abstract mathematical concepts.

►   Minds-on, focusing on the core concepts and critical thinking processes needed for students to create and re-create mathematical concepts and relationships in their own minds. 

►   Problem-based learning–This is a curriculum delivery system that recognizes the need to develop problem solving skills. The teachers act as facilitators of learning. The students are given guidelines on how to approach the problem.(Here, students act as professionals and confront problems as they occur – with fuzzy edges, insufficient information –  to determine the best solution.)

►   Cooperative learning approach–Think-Pair-Share- a strategy designed to provide students with “food for thought” on a given topic enabling them to formulate individual ideas and share these ideas with another student.

►   Constructivist teaching method– Students are asked to summarize the principles learned and write their reflections on how they learned the concepts and principles and how the method helped them in dealing with mathematical activities.

By: CHARITO G. BALUYOT | Teacher III | Limay National High School | Limay, Bataan