ABSTRACT
Imagine giving students a take horne test on the very first day of dass! How can any teacher do this and not promote or enhance whatever math anxiety students already have? Surprisingly, Laura's test is one that students appreciate and consider valuable to them during and years after her mathematics dass. It is not a test to determine whether a student has a good or poor understanding of mathematics concepts. Rather, it consists of only one problem that aims to gain information on students' team role preferences as weIl students' approaches to solving a nonroutine problem. The staircase problem (Figure 4.2, p. 47), typicaIly found in lessons on problem solving, focuses on getting students to generate a table or list of examples for the purpose of finding a pattern or formula. Laura's application of this problem, however, has an important second focus. She writes,
ti on gifts. Students often incorrect1y assume that working as a group and a team are the same thing. However, when students are doing group work I see them working toward a group goal. They focus on solving a problem where they share ideas on interpretation, strategy, and answers, while they do individual and parallel work. On the other hand, students working as a team assume responsibility for solving a problem by sharing tasks and contributing a unique aspect to the process and presentation of the solution. I associate teamwork with role-playing and it is that which I hope to develop in my students so that they grow in their approaches to solving problems.
