The scientific Math playground games novelty is that the teacher works with a small group of students, for example, two three students, as with the individual method of teaching. These students then, having mastered the teaching material or part of it, become teachers for other groups of students of lower rank and similarly teach lower rank students, etc. As a result, the initial lesson is transmitted by the teacher using textbooks as a relay to students from the highest rank to the lowest rank.
This method of teaching will be called sequential. The sequential method of teaching allows to establish a deep feedback between the teacher and the students actually as in the individual method of teaching. The pupil, when transferring knowledge to students of lower rank, additionally comprehends the initial lesson, goes deeper into its essence and almost immediately realizes his knowledge, his understanding on students of lower rank. This also significantly increases the effectiveness of learning. In addition, the rate at which students at higher levels learn can be significantly higher than at lower levels.
Here you should consider that learning is a stressful creative process, both on the part of the student and the teacher, and requires their mutual disposition to learning and favorable for both. Unfortunately, the student is not always able to contact his teacher at the right time. And students often seek advice from fellow teachers, classmates, high school students, and parents who are not professional teachers but who know or are able to resolve the issue in some way. Both timely guidance and appropriate assistance from them are essential to the student’s learning.
I will show how effective learning in the Student-Teacher Tender can be in my math playground word problems school experience. At school I was easily given physics, and my teacher asked me to study with student “P” so that he could somehow pass the physics exam. It turned out that “P” has the lowest grades in all subjects and the exam is in a week. And I decided to teach “P” just to formulate and solve problems by myself. It was necessary to solve as many simple problems and examples as possible. Together we studied one and a half – two hours a day, otherwise on our own if possible. There was no time for teeth cutting. The textbook was read fluently. More emphasis was placed on formulas, titles, drawings and selected texts. At first, I asked him a question or wrote a task, he solved and answered the questions. Then I asked him to come up with a similar example, a question or a task and solve it himself. These were not questions on guessing, but on a meaningful understanding of the subject. My student liked this educational game very much, and most importantly, he quickly gained confidence in his abilities.
We solved the problems qualitatively only with a rough estimate of the quantity. There was no time for detailed calculations, but it was necessary to take into account the dimensionality of current and final values. And everything became more and more complicated. They passed from mechanics to liquids, gases, electricity, atom structure and back, and compared them. “P” began to show more interest and initiative in compiling even complex tasks. We spent a few minutes on such examples, and there were hundreds of such examples. It is amazing, but I also started to get deeper and more serious into the subject. The benefits were mutual. And the result was the first “P” in my life. Both I and my teacher were pleasantly surprised. The “P” managed to answer the ticket clearly, without a stutter, to answer additional questions, and even to solve the problem correctly. Of course, “P” had not enough knowledge and many happy coincidences at the exam, but the positive result was already. Here is an example of how two peers have found common language and helped each other to master the subject better. Obviously, the psychology of children is close and therefore, they are much easier to understand each other than adults.
In a sequential method of teaching, you can enter a score of lessons learned both for the pupil by the teacher, and for the teacher to teach the lesson by the pupil. And if the teacher scores less than one of his students, he can rotate. The teacher of the group becomes an ordinary member of the group and the student who has more points in the group becomes the teacher of that group. This allows more successful students to climb up the hierarchy, and less successful students to fall down. Thus, the most talented students are selected.