Student to Student Talking Gives the Best Math Explanations

There is a significant impact in a student’s achievement when they get to work on their assignment in a group. When students are paired together their knowledge and ideas will expand.

Benefits of Students Talking to Students 

  • Collaboratively learning
  • Sharing ideas
  • Inquiries
  • Clarify differences
  • Problem-solving
  • Constructing new understandings
  • Communicating precisely
  • Sparks conversation
  • Remembering learned knowledge

When students are working together, this is the time in a day when we as teachers can observe our students. The value of getting to listen and observe students is it allows us to know if our students are meeting the objectives and are actively engaged. The best ideas come from collaboration and sometimes their ideas are some we’ve never looked into.

It also serves as a way to gauge participation. Students are more likely to engage with a small group than volunteer in whole group because of anxiety limiting their ability. From there we can determine if  they’re really understanding or if more instruction is needed.

The 3 Cs

Before breaking students into pairs or groups, there needs to be scaffolding on teamwork. A great way to help students remember this is with The 3 Cs.

  1. Communication
  2. Cooperation
  3. Courage

When students use these three things, their conversations are going to be meaningful. Without them there is no point in even separating students.

Carve time in the day to allow students to communicate to one another. The responses will contain more depth and more students will participate in the larger group.