This year my inquiry focus is based on the core learning area: Maths.
My inquiry question is:
How does collaborative group work and peer share time enhance learning outcomes? In term 1, the junior school (year 1-3) started the Numicon maths programme. As soon as we started to use the Numicon materials, I could see that collaboration and group talk was instantly boosted. I hope to see learning progressions lift in maths as a result of the collaboration and peer share time that Numicon has made space for.
I will be able to measure the outcome based on language acquisition. My hope is that students will have more confidence to explain their thinking using the language taught in Numicon lessons or to show their thinking using the Numicon materials.
I have already seen that the Numicon lessons have made space for children to share their ideas with the class or in groups through talk moves like 'what have you noticed' as children are constantly encouraged to share what they notice about what they see before the teacher explains/gifts the new language. The Numicon Shapes, rods, number lines etc all give children engaging visuals and they are very quick to talk to their peers about the exciting things that they notice.
As you can see in the photo below, one student is proudly explaining her thinking to the class. You can also see children in groups, sharing materials. As they work together, they come up with all kinds of ideas about their maths.
I filmed a Vosaic video of myself teaching one of the Numicon lessons to the whole class. Afterwards, I typed my inquiry question as a prompt into the Vosaic 'AI Mate' tool and it gave me some fantastic feedback!
Below are screenshots of the feedback. I felt that the AI Mate tool answered my prompt really well and I was really encouraged by the positive feedback and suggestions. It even gave a percentage of teacher talk time vs student talk time!
This is my general feedback without the specific prompt typed it:
This is the feedback I received when I typed in my inquiry prompt: