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Ottawa

Education Sessions

All Education Sessions will take place at the University of Ottawa.

Detailed schedules can be found on our schedule page. If you would like to participate in a session, please submit your abstract by clicking on the 'Apply' link for your preferred session. 

Sessions

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Skills Coaching in Mathematics Classrooms

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Organizers: Andrew Skelton (York) and Tyler Pattenden (King’s)

In many post-secondary mathematics courses, the focus is squarely on mathematical content, but we know there are far more intangible skills a student develops in the mathematics classroom. The aim of this session is to make those intangible skills more tangible. The Conference Board of Canada’s Employability Skills brochure lists 16 skills that are needed to improve ability and thrive in the workplace and beyond. Problem-solving and numeracy, typically the highest priorities in most post-secondary mathematical classrooms, are just two of these 16 skills, so how do we explicitly teach and evaluate progress in other skills? Studies have shown that focusing simultaneously on mathematical and other academic skills is invaluable in helping students with the high school to university mathematics transition (Lake et al 2017) . In this session, we want to learn from instructors who have developed tools that help with the explicit, intentional, and targeted teaching and learning of a skill, rather than a mathematical concept. This skill could be, but is certainly not limited to, communication, group work, learning skills, peer evaluation, reflection, goal setting, using multiple representations, or research skills. We are interested in hearing about the development of your tool, any obstacles you faced and how you have or might evaluate the success of your intervention.

Sophisticated Stories from the High School Classroom

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Organizers: Peter Taylor (Queen’s) and Chris Suurtamm (Ottawa)

Much has been written about the need to bring more rich, engaging and authentic mathematics into the school classroom. We will invite high school teachers to work with one or two sophisticated math activities in the 2023 winter-spring term, write a report about it—the experience of both teacher and students—and discuss their findings in this session. A collection of suggested problems will be made available to these teachers. We invite faculty and graduate students in mathematics and math education to interact with the teachers and discuss with them the question of what kinds of experience prepare students for success at university. We will be able to give some travel and registration support to any teacher who is interested in presenting or simply attending.

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