Predicting: getting students hooked on maths and stats

“Making predictions about material that you wish to learn increases your ability to understand that material and retrieve it later” James Lang (2016, p.43). For students to engage, their interest must be piqued. Encouraging intrinsic motivation can be difficult. Before teaching a topic, a valuable approach is to present students with a scenario and then ask them to make a prediction or estimate. This challenges them to pause, to think a little and develop a logic for a prediction. If possible, collect the predictions through online voting and present back to the class. This provides an opportunity to ponder (to think a little more) and for peer discussion (why did you make that prediction?). The scene is set for revealing the answer, and the mathematics behind it. Asking students to make predictions can help develop an intellectual need and interest in the mathematics or statistics that can be used to answer the originial question. Drawing on the pause-predict-ponder approach (Ogan, Aleven & Jones, 2008), 3-Act Maths (Meyer, 2011) and surfacing misconceptions (Muller, 2013), this lightning session will discuss the benefits of getting students to make predictions, illustrated with examples.