| This is how my math classes in the early 2000s worked. We show up to class. Teacher talked for maybe 5 minutes. Then we would sit down in groups of 4 and work on exercises. These exercises were very socratic method. Ex: - Measure some right triangles - calculate the squares of the lengths of the sides - Do you notice anything? - Here's some non-right triangles, does your hypothesis still stand? Then some application of the introduced concepts. Kids would help each other within the group, and a teacher would come in to help facilitate this. This was all the math classes for about 3 years, and was great at helping kids learn to do math, explain solutions to others, and build basic social skills. I've had a couple programming workshops like this as well, and they're invariably successful. Even the worst people can find help from either the teachers/coordinators or people who aren't having difficulties. |