Susan Gehn: Text 1

Susan Gehn

Susan Gehn, a first-grade teacher in Cottage Grove, Wisconsin, discusses how students should have an active role in shaping the learning that takes place in her class. Excerpted from the video series Schools That Work: The Research Advantage, videoconference #2, Children as Problem Solvers (NCREL, 1991).

"Now I am much more a facilitator, where I supply the environment and I supply the support and I supply the problems, but the children are actually the teachers themselves, because they come up with the strategies, they come up with the solutions, and they share them with each other and that's where the learning is taking place."

This Critical Issue Summary was researched and written by Cathy J. Cook, mathematics education and professional development specialist, Midwest Consortium for Mathematics and Science Education, North Central Regional Educational Laboratory.

Date posted: 1995