I do group tutoring for high school students and when I read the article I was surprised and excited that most of the suggestions the author has, agree with the way I teach my students.
In our group, when we are solving problems, I never mention anything about a right or a wrong answer. I ask one of the students to explain the process of their thinking and ask the rest of the group if they agree or disagree and leave it to discussion. Most of the time, when a student have a wrong answer, they end up correcting themselves while they are thinking about their thinking. At the same time, they share their ideas, listen to each others’ point of views and come to realise that the same problem could have different ways of solving it.
Another technique I use after discussing a lesson, is to ask students to pose their own problems and solve them themselves. They extremely enjoy the process and, most of the time, they pose challenging problems for themselves and for the group to solve.
I support Simmt argument and I believe that our role as educators is to help students develop into independent thinkers that pose and solve problems and are not afraid to share their ideas and justify them while listening to and respecting each other point of views.
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