41 - Using a Guided-Inquiry Approach to Enhance Student Learning in Precalculus

Summary

The Workshop Mathematics Program

The Workshop Mathematics program [2, 3, 5] broadens student access to university-level mathematics by providing multiple entry points into the discipline. Courses in the program—Workshop Statistics, Workshop Precalculus, and Workshop Calculus—seek to enable students, who might otherwise “fall through the cracks,” to develop the skills and understanding necessary to use mathematics in other disciplines and to continue their study of mathematics. Like other reform courses, workshop courses seek to encourage students to read, write and talk about mathematical ideas and develop confidence in their abilities to think about and do mathematics. They seek to promote student learning through guided hands-on investigations. But most importantly, workshop courses seek to provide a supportive environment in which students enjoy learning and studying mathematics and feel comfortable asking questions and taking risks. [1]

The workshop approach

In the workshop environment, students learn by doing and reflecting on what they have done. The guiding principle is that instructors try not to talk in depth about a concept until students have had an opportunity to think about it first. The workshop approach makes no formal distinction between classroom and laboratory work. Rather than using lectures, instructors follow an interactive teaching format that includes the following components:

• Summary discussion: Typically, workshop instructors devote the beginning of each class to summarizing what happened in the last class, reviewing important ideas, and presenting other related material. Although this segment of a class may take only ten minutes or so, many students claim that it is one of the most important parts of the course, as it helps them make connections and focus on the overall picture. Students understand, and consequently, value the discussion because it relates directly to work they have done.