CGI: Cognitively Guided Instruction

Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) is a student-centered approach to teaching math. It starts with what our young mathematicians already know and builds on their natural number sense and intuitive approaches to problem solving. It is not a math program or curriculum, it is a pedagogy.  CGI is a way of listening to students, asking smart questions, and engaging with their thinking—all with the goal of uncovering and expanding every student’s mathematical understanding. CGI endorses the notion that scholars can be guided through the process of learning how to think like a mathematician. Mixed with our school-wide instructional plan that is rooted in culturally relevant and linguistically responsive pedagogy and practice, CGI allows for scholars who state "I can't do math" to change that ideology and effectively begin to embrace that they can definitely do math because it is linked to them culturally!