Bansho- A Mathematics Instructional Method

A colleague of mine the other day mentioned Bansho, and not having a strong math background from my teacher's college days, I had never heard of it before then. Having said that, after doing a bit of research and discussing Bansho's concept with them, I realized that more and more we are seeing this method of mathematical instruction make its way into our Ontario classrooms. I suppose then it is no surprise that the Ontario Ministry of Education has made many publications regarding this concept, one of which you can view here for more information regarding Bansho. ***UPDATE October 24th, 2015: here is also a lesson plan template/exemplar explaining how to structure a Bansho lesson.

My last blog mentioned Bump It Up (BIU) walls in the classroom, and Bansho provides the teacher as well as their students with the opportunity to create and assess student work in real time in an inclusive and cooperative educational environment. It focuses more on what Dan Meyer calls "patient problem solving" (see video below for more information on this concept), which is having students use their knowledge of math and how it works to problems in order to clarify students' understanding of how math works, and why it is meaningful.

Anyways, I wanted to post a blog about this to provide anyone who is interested with these resources to see how they can implement Bansho into their mathematics programs, and why it is a great tool for improving not only student success/understanding, but to help reshape/redefine the aging textbook/linear mathematic programs from the past. As Dan Meyer states, "Math needs a makeover", and here in Ontario we are doing this one classroom at a time!