Problem solving

Who was the Greatest of All Time (GOAT) of women’s tennis in 2018? Teams participating in this year’s International Mathematical Modeling Challenge (IM2C) were tasked with developing and applying a model to determine just that.

In this Teaching Methods episode, we speak to education consultant Michael Minas about a study he conducted to measure primary school students’ attitudes towards completing challenging problem solving tasks in maths. Michael shares details of the lesson structure he utilised, and why students responded to it so positively.

Registrations are now open for this year’s Australian STEM Video Game Challenge. Students are encouraged to design creative, engaging and imaginative video games incorporating the 2021 theme, ‘scale’.

Considerable progress has been made in defining 21st Century skills, but curriculum implementation is the next hurdle. That was one of the messages to come out of the first webinar revisiting the ‘big five’ education challenges facing Australian schools.

Proficiency in critical and creative thinking, collaboration and problem solving helps students succeed in their learning, but these kinds of skills are also highly valued by employers.

The International Mathematical Modeling Challenge asks students to work collaboratively on a mathematical task related to the real world. Here, Ross Turner, who leads Australia’s involvement in the challenge, describes this year’s task.

A new set of resources developed by experts at the Australian Council for Educational Research aims to provide an evidence-based approach to the development of critical thinking, creative thinking and collaboration. Dr Claire Scoular shares details and examples of the frameworks in today’s article.

An international mathematical modelling competition, open to secondary students in Australia, has seen senior secondary students work collaboratively on a complex, real-world mathematics problem. Here, we speak to two teachers who guided students through the competition.

In this monthly series, we take a look at some further readings available on a particular topic, including open access research papers from various online catalogues. This month’s theme is creative thinking.

How can educators teach and assess the General Capabilities – skills like critical thinking, creative thinking, collaboration, and problem solving? In today’s podcast, Dr Claire Scoular discusses an assessment framework she’s developed for measuring and monitoring these skills in the classroom.