A three-part lesson is an

inquiry-based learning Inquiry-based learning (also spelled as enquiry-based learning in British English) is a form of active learning that starts by posing questions, problems or scenarios. It contrasts with traditional education, which generally relies on the teac ...

method used to teach mathematics in

K–12 K–12, from kindergarten to 12th grade, is an American English expression that indicates the range of years of publicly supported primary and secondary education found in the United States, which is similar to publicly supported school grades ...

schools. The three-part lesson has been attributed to John A. Van de Walle, a mathematician at

Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a public research university in Richmond, Virginia. VCU was founded in 1838 as the medical department of Hampden–Sydney College, becoming the Medical College of Virginia in 1854. In 1968, the Virginia ...

Components

Getting started phase (10 to 15 minutes)

The purpose is to cognitively prepare students for the math lesson by having them think about a procedure, strategy or concept used in a prior lesson. Teachers determine what specific previous learning they wish students to recall, based on outcomes desired for that particular lesson. The role of the teacher is to "get students mentally prepared to work on the problem".

Marian Small Marian Small (born 1948) is a Canadian educational researcher, academic, author, and public speaker. She has co-authored mathematics textbooks used in Canada, Austria, and the United States, and is a proponent of a constructivist approach to ma ...

, a proponent of a constructivist approach to mathematical instruction, provides an example of an inquiry-based question from which a three-part lesson could be created: "one bus has 47 students in it; another has 38. How many students are on both buses?"

Work phase (30 to 40 minutes)

Students engage in solving math problems individually, in pairs, or in small groups, and "record the mathematical thinking they used to develop solutions". Students then plan the strategies, methods, and concrete materials they will use to solve the problem. The teacher will circulate and make observations about the ways students are interacting, and will note the mathematical language they are using as well as the mathematical models they are employing to solve the problem. If a student is having difficulty, "the teacher might pose questions to provoke further thinking or have other students explain their plan for solving the problem". Teachers are advised to be active listeners in this phase, and to take notes. This is also a phase in which teachers can assess students.

Consolidation and practice phase (10 to 15 minutes)

In this final phase, the teacher oversees the sharing of solutions by students, and may employ other teaching techniques such as "math congress", "gallery walk", or "bansho". If new methods and strategies were discovered by students during the work phase, the teacher will post these on the class's "strategy wall", or use them to develop an "anchor chart". Teachers are not to evaluate students in this phase, but should be actively listening "to both good and not so good ideas".

Effectiveness

Advocates of the three-part lesson state that students develop "independence and confidence by choosing the methods, strategies and concrete materials they will use, as well as ways to record their solutions". They claim students learn to discern similarities and differences in the mathematics, and also that "through such rich mathematics classroom discourse, students develop and consolidate their understanding of the learning goal of the lesson in terms of making connections to prior knowledge and experiences and making generalizations". Advocates also claim "students are more enthusiastic about the subject" when inquiry-based math instruction is used. Opponents of inquiry-based methods such as the three-part lesson state that students are not learning the basics such as multiplication tables. In Ontario, Canada, where the

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

has promoted the three-part lesson, the curriculum was changed in the late 1990s in favour of "problem solving based on open-ended investigations rather than memorization". In that province, test scores in grades three and grade six math declined between 2009 and 2013, and "some contend that the math curriculum rather than teacher education is to blame for the lower scores because it places more emphasis on real-world concepts and applications than on rote learning".

References