This event is closed to the public.
Third annual Jameel Al-Aidroos Mathematical Pedagogy Lecture Series
When: October 7, 2024 | 3 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Where: Science Center Room 309, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138
Math Instruction: What happens when students learn to formulate their own questions? How important are questions in a mathematics classroom? A skilled educator uses them well not only to check for understanding, but also to help students get “unstuck,” stimulate new lines of thinking,and facilitate discovery. What if students developed that power themselves? What if they could learn to use questions to create their own learning agenda? How might that lead to genuine engagement, greater curiosity, deeper comprehension and even new discoveries? In this session, we’ll look at how that becomes possible through an active learning experience with the Question Formulation Technique (QFT), a simple but rigorous, structured method for generating and improving one’s own questions. Participants will also explore a recently developed Theory of Question Formulation that explains how the ability to formulate one’s own questions fundamentally changes and enhances people’s ability to learn to think for themselves.
This session includes a presentation and an active learning experience.
Presenters and more information
Dan Rothstein is the co-founder of the Right Question Institute (RQI) and an adjunct lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, co-teaching a course on “Building Nimble and Democratic Minds.”
Tomoko Ouchi leads RQI’s Question Formulation Theory Program. She has led sessions on the use of the Question Formulation Technique for a wide range of higher education audiences in both the United States and Japan.
They are currently co-PIs for the NSF-funded project “GERMINATION EXPANSION: Building Question Formulation Capacity through the Research Question Network.”
The Right Question Institute (RQI) is a nonprofit educational organization offering a simple, powerful strategy that builds people’s skills to ask better questions. The QFT was introduced to a broad educational audience in 2011 when Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions, by Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana, was published. The book has become one of Harvard Education Press’ all-time bestsellers, and close to 80,000 people in more than 180 countries are part of a large network of educators using the QFT in more than a million classrooms from kindergarten through higher education.
Organized by Brendan Kelly, Harvard Department of Mathematics Senior Preceptor, Director of Introductory Mathematics
This speaker series is a small way to remember Jameel Al-Aidroos, his extraordinary warmth of character and pedagogical skills, and his contributions and dedication to teaching and learning at Harvard. He motivated and inspired his students and colleagues; through this series, we hope to celebrate and keep alive that legacy by bringing speakers who share new perspectives on mathematics and pedagogy, and motivate us to reflect on our professional roles.