I noticed how much they relied on one another to interpret the Habits
of Mind problems given and achieve a solution so I knew that working in groups helped
them to better understand mathematics. Leighton added, “I liked working in groups
because you get other peoples’ opinions and it’s kind of nicer that way." Hallie said, “It’s
good to get started as a group and then go home and figure it out. I like to choose my
own groups because some people like to mess around and they take all the answers”.
Savanna added, “Some problems that I don’t really get, I like to see what other people
do to see if I know it [the answer]”. When referring back to my research question, “What
happens to student understanding when I require written explanations solving weekly
Habits of Mind problems?” I made the assertion that students improved their