Sue Gehn, first grade teacher in Cottage Grove, Wisconsin, talks about how CGI
has affected her teaching (QuickTime slide show 230k). Excerpted from NCREL's videoseries, Schools
That Work: The Research Advantage, videoconference 2, Children as Problem
Solvers (NCREL, 1991).
A cognitively guided instruction (CGI) classroom, according to first grade teacher and CGI participant Sue Gehn, is where you "build on the mathematics knowledge of children according to what they already know." "CGI is a philosophy, not a recipe," says first grade teacher Mazie Jenkins, "you as a teacher have to take the knowledge that CGI is about problem types, about solution strategies, about how children develop cognitively, and you have to apply that to your own teaching style." CGI is about teachers making instructional decisions based on their knowledge of individual children's thinking. CGI, which is seeking additional funds from the National Science Foundation for expansion and further dissemination, was started by Elizabeth Fennema, Tom Carpenter, Penelope Peterson, and Megan Franke at the Wisconsin Center for Educational Research. University of Wisconsin-Madison, as a research program to investigate the impact that research-based knowledge about children's thinking has on teachers and their students.
The project includes the study of children's and teachers' thinking in grades K-3, CGI in urban schools, and the impact of CGI in preservice teacher education. CGI is not a traditional mathematics program, does not prescribe a "scope and sequence," and does not provide instructional materials or activities for children. Instead, knowledge about how children think about mathematics and how they solve authentic and interesting one-step and multiple-step problems. Children in a CGI classroom spend most of their time solving problems, using a variety of self-selected strategies and models, and talking about the solution strategies that they have constructed. The climate in a CGI classroom is one in which each person's thinking is important and respected by peers and teacher. Children approach problem solving willingly and responsibly and recognize that their thinking is critical. For more information about CGI, contact Donald Chambers, Wisconsin Center of Educational Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin.