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Process pedagogy, engaging mathematics.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

A process-orientated pedagogy was used in a learning community to engage first-year college students as writers and mathematicians. Students were involved in exploring and experiencing how writers and mathematicians work. Emphasis was on the processes used by professionals to achieve their end products--a final manuscript or solved problem. This article presents examples of mathematics activities modeling a process-orientated pedagogy.

Introduction

Mathematics and writing are unlikely bedfellows in most minds, yet these subjects in first-year college curricula have more in common than one might assume. Post-secondary education research asserts that these subjects are key portals to success in college (National Research Council, 1989; Venezia, Kirst, & Antonio, 2003). First-year students enter college with below college-level competencies in writing (32%) and mathematics (59%) (ACT Newsroom, 2005). Lack of confidence in these competencies often creates anxiety that informs first-year students' overall academic identity (Astin, 1993; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005). Thus, first-year math and writing courses are an ideal setting for enhancing students' sense of confidence and competence.

The process approach, developed in composition over thirty years ago, demystifies writing by focusing on the composing process and by positioning the finished product as one stage in that process. Whether professionals or students in a composition course, writers do not magically create publishable texts. Rather, they engage in a sequence of activities (brainstorming, collaborating, seeking feedback, re-reading, stepping away from the text, reading other texts, creating outlines and multiple drafts) to generate, shape and improve their final product. Process pedagogy invites students to experience what writers do: drafting ideas and responses, soliciting feedback, reflecting on rhetorical choices, and revising (Britton, Burgess, Martin, McLeod, & Rosen, 1975; Emig, 1971; Faigley, 1986; Tobin, 2001).

Process pedagogy can empower students in mathematics too. Mathematicians go through a process of thought and activities to approach mathematical problems: framing a problem, generating solution paths, re-conceptualizing, and revising. They do not simply "arrive" at an answer. Mathematicians seek feedback, conferring with colleagues for viable alternative approaches and explanations. In the same way that process pedagogy in a composition class encourages students to identify as writers, a process approach in a mathematics class can shift the focus from "doing problems" to being mathematicians--doing the work mathematicians do (Blair, 2006; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2000). The work of ethnomathematicians (Powell & Frankenstein, 1997), social justice mathematicians (Bishop, 1985; Gutstein & Peterson, 2005) and critical mathematics education researcher (Skovsmose & Valero, 2002), emphasize the need for connections between mathematical ideas and processes, culture, real world activities, empowerment of the individual and the academic mathematics classroom. Process pedagogy, applied within a first-year mathematics course, offers a practical set of tools for enacting this sense of engagement and empowerment.

Setting the stage

Our learning-community students were primarily first-generation college students in underrepresented racial and ethic groups (Native American,...