Promoting Discussion in Higher Education Mathematics: Talk-Test

Promoting Discussion in Higher Education Mathematics.

Over the last few years I have tried several different ways to incorporate group work and discussion in my Higher Education Mathematics classroom/lectures. Students don't instinctively love talking about maths! It takes a bit of work to set up some reason for students to get involved in mathematical discussion.

I've tried the usual things: The basic "have a chat with your neighbour about that",The incentivised by fear "check your answers with you neighbour because I'll randomly pick someone to ask". The classic "think-pair-share".

I've really enjoyed using the method from Peter Liljedahl's thinking classroom of using Vertical Non Permanent Surfaces (#VNPS). The rule I promote is that if you are writing on the board you can't write your own ideas, someone needs to tell you what to write. I find this works very well to promote discussions about interesting problems.

This week I discovered a new technique I hadn't heard of before. I tried it and it worked out great!

Talk-Test

The idea is that if you give a test you give the students a short fixed length of time before the test to talk about the test with no pens allowed. I just call it "Talk-Test" but maybe there is already an existing name for this technique. I heard of it through a tweet by Howie Hua @howie_hua. A quick glance at the number of comments, likes and retweets shows that I was certainly not the only maths educator to think this seems like a great idea.

For tests, I dedicate the first 5 minutes to have students hold the tests and talk to their group about strategies (w/out pencils). This lowers their test anxiety AND when you walk around, you hear some of the richest math conversations. #iteachmath
— Howie Hua (@howie_hua) September 28, 2018

I tried this on Monday with a class who were doing a no stakes assessment. It worked a treat. The discussions that I heard the students have were close to the best I have heard with any highly planned activities...and this basically took no effort on my part. All I did was allow a few minutes for discussion. I think this technique ticks so many boxes for great learning opportunities. It is a form of retrieval practice. It harnesses the testing effect. Peer instruction takes place. Students build rapport and work together "against the test" hopefully lowering some of their maths and test anxiety.

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