In an effort to prepare educators to redress the impact of extended time out of school due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Instruction Partners recently launched a series of interviews with content experts, researchers, and leading practitioners to consider the question: What do we know about what works and what does not work to intervene effectively and accelerate student learning?
As part of the series, Deborah Ball was interviewed by Instruction Partners CEO Emily Frietag about effective mathematics questions to accelerate student learning. Ball discussed the use of complex and open-ended mathematical problems to engage children. “What we know but have rarely been able to act on is the idea that mathematics actually is a whole set of ways of thinking and kinds of problems, kinds of questions that little children, beginning at a very young age, and certainly going on through elementary school and further, have an affinity for, that don't correspond well to thinking about whether kids are ‘behind’ or ‘ahead,’” she said.
Video of the interview and an abridged Q&A are available here.