Articles+-+When+Students+Choose+The+Challenge

November 2007 | Volume **65** | Number **3**
 * Making Math Count** Pages 60-65

=When Students Choose the Challenge (LINK)= David Suarez

//Through tiered instruction, students at different ends of the ability spectrum find success in math class.//

I used to wonder why, despite my enthusiasm for teaching and my students' genuine interest in learning, I was missing the mark with so many middle school math students. However, after I put together Vygotsky's (1986) concept of the zone of proximal development with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's perspective on how to create joyful concentration or “flow” in learning, I understood my classroom dynamics better. According to Csikszentmihalyi (1990), enjoyment in learning “appears at the boundary between boredom and anxiety, when the challenges are just balanced with a person's capacity to act” (p. 52). Recognizing this truth, I couldn't ignore the obvious. My underperforming students were either bored or overwhelmed.

When I began teaching integrated algebra-geometry classes to 8th graders at Jakarta International School in Indonesia, I decided to structure my classroom so that students could choose their own zone of proximal development, the learning task that is just challenging enough to be motivating. Jakarta International School is a private, international K–12 institution with approximately 650 students in the middle grades (6–8). My students ranged from those who had been recommended for remedial math courses to those who had already learned much of the upcoming year's mathematics curriculum. The question of how to give each student in this diverse group the opportunity to grow weighed on my mind.


 * //To read more, please download the above pdf file.//**