Category: set theory

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classroom structure questioning set theory

Expecting Questions

I have mixed feelings about student questions.

We (as teachers) act like we want students to ask questions; however, there are plenty of implicit messages about teaching that tell us that good teachers don’t need students to ask questions. One of the oldest pillars of teaching tells us to provide adequate wait time for students to formulate and ask questions, but there is a sense of relief when time passes without the need for clarification. This feeling essentially equates clarity with quality. Wait time becomes an emergency procedure to be used when we feel an awkward imbalance in the room.

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investigation set theory tasks

Sorting Set(s)

Set Theory, Counting Methods, and Probability are probably my three favourite topics to teach. For the first time under our new curricular framework, I got to teach these topics to a group of seniors. I decided to build up large themes and understandings through introductory tasks; my goal was to create an “unflippable” entry point where students could work together to complete tasks and filter out necessary details such as rules, notation, etc. I began our study of Set Theory with this task.

The students were introduced to the idea of what a set is. They also were given some elementary verbiage. I wanted them to become comfortable using words like set, subset, and disjoint throughout the task. I did not introduce them to the idea of intersection and union–those were to be formalized through the task.

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