Research Aligned Mentorship Program
Collaborative Learning Workshop in Mathematics
FACILITATOR GUIDELINES
“There are two factors that shape inequality in this country and educational achievement inequality. The big one is poverty. But a really big one is opportunity to learn. As citizens, we need to work on poverty and income inequality or our democracy is threatened. As mathematics educators … we need to work on opportunity to learn. It cannot be that the accident of where a child lives or the particulars of their birth determine their mathematics education.”
--Uri Treisman
The Purpose of the Math Collaborative Learning Workshop
The Collaborative Learning Workshopsin Mathematics at Farmingdale State College are designed to supplement and enhance student learning in foundational/gateway math courses that are often problematic for entering students. The 1-credit workshops are reserved exclusively for entering first year students who have been selected for participation in the Research Aligned Mentorship Program.
Course Description (as it appears in the Farmingdale catalog)
Collaborative Learning Workshops are an integral part of the Research Aligned Mentorship (RAM) program. In the workshops, students master material in challenging foundational courses such as Mathematics. Faculty facilitators provide worksheets that students – organized in small collaborative working groups – use to solve problems while deepening their understanding of course material, acquiring strong study skills, and developing support groups.
Learning and Developmental Outcomes (as approved by the College Curriculum Committee)
At the completion of this course, the student should be able to:
- Demonstrate deep understanding and mastery of the course material
- Earn a passing grade in the companion Foundational Course
- Develop problem solving skills
- Acquire strong study skills
- Form support groups and develop the habit of collaborating with others in learning and studying
- Appreciate the professor as a resource, developing the habit of asking the professor for guidance
Setting the Tone
Facilitators will help students to achieve deeper understanding of the material and stronger study skills by fostering an environment of collaborative, coordinated meandering. Students in the RAM program will work together in small groups on difficult, interesting problems designed by the facilitators to emphasize and illuminate important aspects of the material under discussion.
Some instruction will and should take place within the workshop environment. However, the facilitator’s role is not to teach but rather to enable and support the group learning process and maintain the collaborative environment. Facilitators are, therefore, not named “leaders,” “teachers,” or anything comparable.
Facilitators will guide the discussion around the material and problems and provide mentoring for participants, but ultimately the students will work through the problems on their own in groups. They will pick up along the way a sense of what the problem means and how it fits into the greater scheme of their regular course material.
Facilitator Responsibilities
To design a short 1-2 page overview or outline of the course to present to students on the first day of class. This 1-2 page overview can include the course description or purpose, learning objectives, and expectations/grading, and more. Expectations/Grading would describe policies around attendance, participation and collaboration, and their presentations.
To create a welcoming and engaging learning environment where students feel comfortable and their ideas are valued.
To follow the progress of the courses that form the foundation of the workshops so that content in the workshop is in sync with the regular course lecture and materials.
To develop additional pedagogical materials (e.g. problem sets and solution sheets) to facilitate collaborative learning.
To encourage students to exchange contact information with each other, especially within their groups. The facilitator should strongly suggest that students collaborate with each other not only inside the classroom but outside the classroom (e.g., study group formation).
To be flexible and prepared to improvise or adapt theworkshop materials to meet the developing needs of the participants. In doing so, facilitators must be in tune with the students’ struggles while in the workshop and, if possible,in their regular coursework. By identifying these struggles, the facilitator can appropriately redirect discussion and/or accommodate emerging student needs by introducing new material. Facilitators may set up office hours for consultation with individual workshop participants as needed.
To communicate regularly with the professors teaching the frosh-only lecture sections of the course. Get their syllabi, know the text books, and touch base with the professors before the beginning of the semester and regularly throughoutthe semester.
To communicate regularly with the other facilitators to discuss progress, successes and setbacks in workshops.Sharing emerging “best practices” or tips on engaging students and helping them learn to teach each other is encouraged. An online community might be set up for facilitators to communicate easily and remotely leading up to and throughout the semester – or facilitators might simply touch based regularly in the math department.
To provide students with copies of worksheet solutions in a timely and relevant manner via hard-copy or electronically (e.g., Blackboard, e-mail, web page). If electronically, facilitators must show students how to access the materials and periodically remind them how to do so. Check often to ensure all students are receiving the solutions.
What to Expect as a Facilitator
There is an intuitive component to pulling-off the perfect workshop. New facilitators can expect to struggle with this for a while. Therefore, facilitators should support each other by keeping communication lines open via online community and/or meeting in the math department.
Consider the following aspects of the workshop and how you will orchestrate each:
Instruction: Students will always claim they love being lectured to - and they probably do. But the workshops endeavor to replace passive 'learning' with active ownership, so lectures are counter-productive to the whole process. Students universally despise 'answer-a-question-with-a-question.’ It sets up an adversarial relationship between the students and the facilitator and is counterproductive to the workshop environment in which student and facilitator together establish a learning community.
Interaction:Circulating through the room, touching-base with each of the workgroups, socializing a bit, creating a sense of community is good. On the other hand, standing behind a group, hovering over the students, staring at them while they work, and not offering anything constructive is not good. The facilitator should be an active guide who provides gentle encouragement.
Group Dynamics:The first few minutes of any collaborative exercise are going to be pretty quiet. Students need time to internalize the task at hand. But things shouldn't stay quiet for too long. If '0' is dead-silence and '10' over-caffeinated boisterousness, a facilitator should probably aim for a relatively quick transition from 0 to about 3, and longer transition from 3 to about 7. If the groups get to 8 or 9, it's probably past time to move on. This, of course, will depend on the particular problem, the particular students and the pedagogical aims of the exercise. The idea is to facilitate constructive, useful interaction without letting things get out of hand.
WORKSHOP POLICIES
Students Must Come prepared
While there are no homework assignments, students should review the notes and assignments from their companion Math class prior to attending the workshop. Students are expected to bring the Math class textbook, assignments, problem sets, notes, graded exams, and other Math classwork to the companion collaborative learning workshop.
Recommended Class Time Structure
Week 1 – The first meeting with students can be used to introduce yourself, to explain the structure of the collaborative learning workshop, and to set the tone for the semester. Next, orchestrate an icebreaker so that students meet each other. You might ask students to introduce themselves, their majors, and anything of interest about themselves (e.g., yoyo champion, born in Russia, “sandwich artist” at Subway). Finally, discuss the purpose of the course, expectations of the students (attendance, participation and collaboration) and their presentations. Next, facilitators can then organize the groups they will be working in throughout the semester and give them one activity to work on together for the remaining class time. Facilitators may be creative in what they set as the collaborative activity. One idea for the statistics workshop is to have students come up with examples of how statistics is applied to the real world. Math worksheets or math problems need not be used in this first class.
Subsequent Weeks–Facilitators will structure each workshop around the worksheet to be completed that day. They will introduce the topic for the day, discuss any challenges students may anticipate facing, and then hand out the worksheets to be worked on in the groups for the remainder of the class time. The facilitator will ensure group activity stops in due time so each group may present their solutions.
Groups – Have students form groups of no fewer than 3 and up to 5 students in each (ideally). Students may work in the same group throughout the semester. However, the facilitator should be aware of imbalances in the level of ability of each group and organize students into other groups as needed.
Group Chat - Start off each workshop with no more than 10 minutes devoted to open discussion with the students. This time should be used to identify what students are doing in their lecture class, how they are doing in the lecture class, and what material they are struggling with in either the lecture or the workshop. Use the information gathered from this discussion to synchronize the workshop with the lecture and better meet the needs of the students.
Provide Structure - Segway from the group chat into a brief and preliminary discussion of the core ideas/concepts/vocabulary/notation of the day’s assignment. The students who present their work will be treated gently with respect and positive encouragement by the facilitator and classmates.
Icebreakers – Begin with at least one icebreaker or review problem before asking students to delve into the more difficult problem(s) on the day’s worksheet.
Worksheet Think–The first few minutes after handing out the worksheet will be quiet. Students will need time to read the problem, comprehend, and set it up (“Think”).
Worksheet Pair – As students reach the point of setting up the problem, the facilitator should encourage them to begin to share their ideas with other members of the group (“Pair”).
Worksheet Share– As a group, the students should begin to determine a solution with the guidance of the facilitator (“Share”). The facilitator will assess the progress of each group and engage the group according to their specific needs.They should use the white board or black board in the room to work out the problem and then present it. The students who presents the work will be treated gently with respect and positive encouragement by the facilitator and classmates.
Note: Groups may tend to collaborate with other groups, but the facilitator should not allow super-groups to form until and unless the individual groups have reached a point where it is productive and makes sense to do so.
Attendance
Attendance will be taken every week. Mandatory attendance is expected, however, unanticipated circumstances are understood to arise. Up to three excused absences are permitted. An excused absence is one in which the student contacts the instructor prior to (or no later than the day of) the missed workshop with a compelling explanation.All absences will be reported to the RAM counselors.
Presentations
A grade will be assigned based on the quality and effort put into presentations in which a student (or two students) explain their group’s work on the board, demonstrating a problem solution (or portion of a multifaceted problem). The required number of presentations will depend on the size of the class. In larger classes, the number of presentation opportunities for any given student is limited. For larger classes, you might ask a team of two students to co-present their group’s work.
Students will be notified in advance of the specific problem they will be presenting and the facilitator will work with the students tocreate a comfortable, positive and nurturing environment where students are free to make errors without embarrassment or penalty.
Students will ultimately present their work independently and receive an individual grade, but students should be constantly and consistently reminded to collaborate with others in the class in the development of their presentation. The grade will reflect the student’s overall understanding of the topic and seriousness of effort and need not require a completely correct solution.
General Grading Guideline
Remember, this 1 credit workshop is intended primarily to support students and enhance learning, not to penalize students. Students should be attending class, participating and collaborating with their group, and putting clear effort into their presentations. As long as students demonstrate that they are taking the work seriously, they should receive a high mark in the course.
Acknowledgements- UCLA PEERS Program and Uri Treisman